2.7 Wandering about
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The next morning, the valley was covered in mist. Visibility was reduced to a perhaps a hundred meters. The temperatures went down quite a bit.

After a quiet breakfast we packed our wet equipment and set out to the east again.

“In this soup we can’t see which direction were heading.” Milly stopped after a steep climb on a hillock.

“I think we’re still heading east, but without seeing the mountains it’s a bit of a gamble. At least we can’t leave the valley without noticing. The slopes are way too steep.” I gave her a light hug.

“We could go backwards.” She frowned locking her eyes with mine.

“Staying put isn’t a good idea. We may attract some of the denizens of this valley if we stay longer at a place.” I look ahead into the mist.

“The mist will probably lift as the suns get higher.” Loraline joined us on our short break.

“I hate being wet all day!” Tilly pouted ahead at the mist.

“At least it doesn’t rain.” Caroline gave Tilly a light hug.

“Still everything feels wet.” Tilly frowned looking into the mist.

“Let’s move on.” I started to descend the hillock at the other side.

Half an hour later the slope started to increase more than I expected, but the mist lightened a bit.

“Let’s head on to get a better idea of directions.” I looked back at the others.

“It’s better than turning back at this point.” Milly nodded.

“We can have a lunch break in an hour. Maybe we can see the suns thereafter.” I looked at the slope ahead. After scaling another scree ramp for a while we arrived at a plateau surrounded by sheer rock face with plenty of boulders sprawled at its base. A narrowl gorge leads farther up.

As we reached the center of the plateau loud cries suddenly shrilled through the clear mountain air. Dozens of small humanoids with disproportional too large heads carrying spears appeared from be behind larger boulders and out of the gorge. Goblins!

They approached yelling and waving with their crude spears as we dropped our backpacks and formed a loose line in front of Loraline. Two arrows passed from behind and two goblins fell down with an arrow sticking from their throat.

I readied my halberd to stab the first of the little fuckers to come into reach. A larger group turned to left of our formation where Milly was getting ready to receive them. Tilly and I were at the center while Caroline was at he right flank. Loraline had taken position behind us letting loose feathered deaths at the charging goblins.

“Let’s try to fall back a bit to get more of them at a distance.” I gripped the halberd at the butt end for more reach and looked at Tilly.

She nodded, her spear’s head already pointing at the charging goblins.

While the goblins closed in another three arrows whistled by, taking two further goblins down. I strengthened my skin as I had enough mana. There was enough left for large claws fortunately. I hoped that the steady drain on my mana would eventually stop. It was quite a nuisance.

Then the wave of goblins crashed into Tilly and me first. I poked the tip of my weapon at the goblin who lead the charge. He brushed the weapon aside, which offered me the opportunity to stab the goblin to his left into the face. I saw another goblin going down skewered by Tilly’s spear.

We skipped back while pulling back our weapons and changing the grip of our weapons for more close range attacks.

Then the wave of goblins crashed into our line. I lost track of the others while skewering one the goblins who tried to jump at my legs. Two spears went through my armor but were diverted by my hardened skin as I turned to avoid the stabs.

I saw Milly going down in a heap of goblins after cutting down some of them. Caroline was still standing. Half a dozen of them finally managed to take me down while some went through at Loraline. Tilly was still standing, poking at the goblins that tried to surround her. I had a goblin clinging to each of my legs and arms while another planted his stinking butt on my face. Awww! I let go of the halberd and extended my claws.

The goblins on my arm let go a few moments after I dug my claws into them, piercing their leather tunics. Holding my breath I jutted my hands over my face, claws extended forward. I heard a bloodcurdling scream as they sank into something soft and warm. The goblins at my feet had pulled my legs together and seemed to try tying them up. I struggled as good as I could, but not seeing anything it I couldn’t react well to their efforts. The goblin above me froze after after a few moments and a warm liquid started to splash on me from above. He fell over my head as I continued pushing. Lots of blood splashed all over my face as I seemed to have cut a larger blood vessel.

With my arms free and the goblin out of my face I raised my upper body and jabbed at one of the goblins at my feet. I still couldn’t see but as they had to touch me I had a good idea of their position as he tried to tie my legs down. While I finished him off the other one managed to tie my legs together while two other slammed into me taking me down on my back again. In the meanwhile I blinked my eyes free of the blood. I kicked the goblin at my feet with both legs and sent him flying back while the other two tried to jab at my arms with their knives, one giving my a shallow cut while the other one was stopped my armor.

A few moments later one of them went down with Loraline standing over him, her sword in her hand. The other was distracted for a moment so I ripped out his throat.

“Thanks.” I tried a smile at her, but my face probably looked horrible.

I cut the rope around my legs with my right claw and got to my feet again. Caroline’s opponents had circled her with their spears but didn’t seem to be bold enough to move in for a hit.

One of Tilly’s goblins went down as Loraline put her sword into his back. With only one goblin left she finished him of moments later.

“Help Milly!” I cried and turned to Caroline.

One of the goblins turned to me which gave Caroline an opening to crush his skull with her mace. One of the other managed to poke her thigh with his spear. I went for this one and he turned his spear to me. Caroline turned to her other opponent driving him back.

I let the goblin scratch me at my shoulder while gripping his spear and pulling him close. My hardened skin took care of the spear tip again after it penetrated my armor. I gouged out his eyes and finished him off there after.

One of the goblins ran off into the gourge. Caroline had struck down her goblin as well. Loraline and Tilly were now facing three goblins each while another one was busy with ropes they wrapped around Milly.

I started to sprint to her position while passing the cluster of Tilly’s goblins. As I passed I jabbed at one of them. Tilly was able to finish him of as he got distracted while in the range of her spear.

I jumped at Milly’s goblin who was trying to draw a knife. Milly twisted her body and sent him stumbling into my direction. I raked him from the groin to his chest. He went down on his knees with a bloodcurdling scream. I followed up with an elbow in his neck which silenced him immediately.

Then I cut free Milly. The others had taken down the rest of the goblins in the meantime. Without the advantage of numbers normal goblins weren’t much of a threat.

“Any serious wounds?” I looked while we tried to catch our breath again.

“My pride is wounded and having not enough mana in a fight kind of sucks.” Milly kicked at one of the goblins lying on the ground.

“A few scratches.” Tilly looked at her arm.

Loraline shrugged while Caroline pointed at her thigh.

“We have to move. One got away and he will probably come back with reinforcements.” I went to retrieve my halberd.

“Down again?” Milly looked at me.

“It’s the best. The goblin fled upward. Let’s try to get some distance and maybe find some defensible place for the night later.” I picked up my backpack.

“There will be some tougher goblins if the whole tribe is after us.” Caroline frowned at her thigh.

Loraline took care of Caroline. Then we were ready to go.

So we climbed down all the way to the bottom of the valley. Fortunately the suns were visible as we were at the sole again and we turned to continue east as fast as we could.

“We will continue to the evening. Before we can decide what to do we have to see how many were following us. More goblins need more to eat and hopefully they are not prepared to provide enough food for a larger host for more than a few days.” I looked at Caroline.

She was doing well enough. It wouldn’t be any good to have one of us out of commission at the end of the day.

“I’m holding you back.” Caroline had noticed my look.

“We need you to be able to fight, Caroline.” I gave her a hug.

“We probably have some time since it’s usually a bit of a hassle to get a larger host on the way.” Loraline stopped and looked behind us.

We managed to find a decent place to rest towards the evening between a few larger boulders near the creek.

Loraline checked Caroline’s thigh. Then we washed ourselves and our clothes thoroughly. The water was ice cold, but there was no way around that after all that blood and gore. After that we had some dinner.

“Do you think they will pursue?” Milly looked at me and bit into a smoked sausage.

“I think so, but I hope it’s not the entire tribe. They probably needed some time to prepare and maybe we see something during the night. We should get a nice view over the valley from up there.” I pointed at one of the boulders.

“At least a larger group has less chances to surprise us.” Caroline pulled her knees under her chin while looking at the valley behind us.

“At least when they want to keep up.” Tilly grinned.

“Don’t forget they know the terrain better. That’s quite an advantage.” I leaned myself back on my hands stretching my legs.

“We can only give our best to keep ahead of them. No point discussing about things we have no information about.” Milly cut herself a slice of the cheese.

“I would press on into the night, but Caroline needs rest to recover.” I smiled at her.

“The wound was not that deep and I think it will heal well enough. It was a goblin spear after all.” Loraline looked at Caroline’s thigh.

“Let’s try to find out what they’re up to. Preferably they will stop pursuing us at some point.” I sighed and let myself down on my back.

The skies started to darken and soon the first stars would appear. Milly came over and sat down beside me.

“Try to focus on the present. We have survived the ambush today and life will go on.” She started to pet my head.

“Yeah. We will continue tomorrow. Good thing is that larger groups need more supplies. That may be not a problem if we’re next to their lair, but a few days away it may be work out in our favor.” I smiled at Milly.

“Let’s get ready for the night.” Milly got up.

“We need not all our tents since there will always be someone on guard. We have some spare stuff that way as well.” I got up as well.

We set up a tent for four of us combining two tents. Soon we got ready for the night. I needed some time to fall asleep, but the day had been exhausting. In the end it didn’t take that long.

When I was woken for my last watch nothing interesting had happened. I decided not to climb up a boulder, since I had to be down here when something happened. Later dawn arrived and after breakfast Loraline checked our wounds again. Then we moved on to the east. There was nothing out of place during the day. The weather had been sunny again and there was only a bit of mist in the morning.

We spent another night in a shallow cave and the next day was fine as well. Seems that the goblins were not interested in following us.

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