Axlet couldn’t even recognize the voice in his head as his mind was filled with nothing but panic. He began sprinting through the snow doing everything he could to get away and follow his father’s command. The pain and fatigue he had felt less than a minute earlier had all disappeared from his mind. Unfortunately for him though, even with his sprinter skill, his body was still exhausted whether he was able to feel it or not. In his panic he wasn’t able to think about anything around him, the snow, his footing, the direction, it was all he could do to just keep moving and getting away.

 

As he continued run every second felt like an hour, he began tripping and catching himself on his hands, every piece of clothing becoming soaked and caked with snow. By the time he had started to be capable of thinking again he looked up while continuing his sprint and could only see the branches of tree’s, he didn't dare to stop though while he tried collecting his thoughts. As he began to look down to get his bearings he felt a dull pain assault his abdomen and found himself tumbling through the snow. When he opened his eyes again he saw that he had to run into something and it was now struggling in the snow and standing up.

 

It’s waxy yellow skin seemed to pollute the snow as it stood on it’s legs and turned its head turned Axlet. It's pale green eyes shining in his own pupils while they expanded in absolute terror bringing a wretched smile to the goblins face. It’s teeth looked like a jagged mountain range as they curved upwards hanging on the outside of its mouth and almost entirely covering its upper lip.

Axlet felt his entire body begin shaking and started to understand why the goblin was smiling when its smile grew even wider in response to his fear. The goblin only stood about 4 feet tall and the snow was waist high for it so rather than trudging through it simply hopped, just as the ones Axlet had previously seen. This time, however, it had much less distance to cover landing just ten feet away from where Axlet was now crouched. With just one hop it had cleared 3 feet of distance and Axlet could see it was unarmed.

 

“Checheche” As it landed the goblin stayed still, leaning closer to Axlet and laughing with glee. Only 7 feet away from him Axlet realized why his father had been wary and told Axlet to stay away from these monsters. The pure glee painted across the monster’s face as it stood playing with his life terrified Axlet more than any story about kingdom wrecking dragons. Even more than terror though, Axlet felt disgust, disgust that any being could take such pleasure in fear and disgust that he was the source of that fear. With tears welling in his eyes, blurring his vision of the cruel being taunting him with it’s outstretched face, he reached for the dagger he had tied to his belt before leaving the house. Seeing his sudden movement the goblin’s smile faded in an instant and it lunged as fast as it could towards Axlet.

 

“AAAAGHGHG” Seeing the sudden burst of movement Axlet did everything he could to get a sure grip on the dagger and just as he began to pull it from its hardened leather sheath the goblin made contact with his lower body forcing him to the ground. Axlet had pulled the dagger from his right side with his right hand, forcing himself into a reverse grip now that he was thrown to the ground with no more time to hesitate. Axlet could feel nothing but a pounding in his head as the sounds of his and the goblin’s screams resounded throughout the woods.

 

“AHHHHHHAGHAGHA” All Axlet knew was that he was stabbing trying to move his arm up and down as fast as he could to kill the monster latched onto his legs and flailing wildly in every direction. He stabbed over and over and over too terrified to even take a moments pause for fear of falling to the monster before him. He didn’t even notice that after the 15th stab the goblin had stopped moving except for the spasms caused by his continued stabs. By the 25th stab the knife was no longer in Axlet’s hand but he continued making the same motion as hard as he could beating the body lying before him. Soon the only sounds were snow crunching under a body and unconstrained sobs.

 

 

Axlet wasn’t sure how long it had been, his throat burned from his sobbing and the snow around him was soaked red by what he hoped was the goblin’s blood. As his tears dried and his arm fell numb he sat and properly took in his surrounding for the first time. He was now sitting on his knees with his legs under him and the goblin’s head in his lap. The entire back of the monster was covered in puncture wounds with his dagger protruding from it’s left shoulder. His right hand was covered in blood and had shooting pains every time he tried to move it. He couldn’t even seen past the blood to determine what his injury might be. The same went for his legs. The goblin had latched onto him pretty well, grabbing the back of his legs and he could feel a great deal of pain coming from both of his thighs.

 

I hope they aren’t too badly damaged, the pain is unbearable but if I can’t walk I’m dead. All I can see is trees, I can’t even spot the main road, not that I would go back if I could. Dad’s still there. I was just doing what he wanted I didn’t want to run. I wanted to fight. I just started moving…and… I… I didn’t even think. I didn’t do it because he wanted me to. I just ran. I left him. I killed him. I didn't even try to save him. I could’ve tried. I could’ve died with him. I only wanted a better life for us. And now.

 

Another bout of sobbing followed his thoughts. This one just as long as the other leaving Axlet with a horrible pain in his throat as his his wailing was reduced to nothing but hoarse whispers. Finally standing up pain shot through him, his legs felt as though every muscle fiber had been shredded and his skin was left exposed to the snow for days. Despite the excruciating pain he still managed to stand, surprising even himself. He pulled the dagger from the fallen goblin's body and placed it back in it’s sheath. Wiping off the blood and viscera from his legs that had now soaked in the vile mix for quite a while the smell assaulted his nose and almost initiated another bout of tears, not that he had any left. Instead after a few dry heaves he was able to remove most of the viscera and was left with just a few layers of blood that had worked their way deep into his fur pants. With the smell now bearable he looked out into the trees.

 

I have no idea where I am. Damn it. Alright I’m not disappointing him twice by dying. I can think about it all later, right now I need to move. The entire town must’ve been up in flames with that amount of smoke and if the goblins were chasing from that direction its no coincidence. They must’ve attacked, for them to cause that much damage though, I didn’t think it was possible for them to make attacks like that. Either way I need to get home, I can’t get to town in this snow and it looks like I’ve only got an hour or two until sunset.

I need to get home, I have no idea what happened at town or how many goblins there are but if the goblins don’t kill me tonight the cold will. I’ve been out here for too long and my clothes are almost soaked through. I don’t have long.

 

I can’t follow the trail back to the road in case the goblins are still there. I don’t know how far I went though. I couldn’t have been running that long right? I at least know the general direction I came from the trail. The sun was too my back when I left, it’s beginning to get darker now though so I’ll just walk with it to my back again. I’ll try to wait as long as possible to head back towards the road but once it gets darker I’ll have to get out of the woods. I need to start moving before any other goblins come and keep an eye out so I don’t run into any...again.

 

After about 10 minutes the pain was already getting to Axlet, every step was hell and the cold was spreading up from his legs and moving throughout his entire body. He was moving much faster than he realized though. Even with his fatigue and injuries the snow seemed lighter than before and although each step came with a shooting pain as his foot contacted the ground it also came with a firmer stance. This was extremely lucky for Axlet as the time was far later than he originally expected. The days got much shorter during winter, especially in Seneca due to it’s northern position above the continent and after just 20 minutes of walking the sun was already halfway down and throwing its orange and purple light across the cloudy sky.

 

Seeing this Axlet began carefully making his way back in the direction of the road in a diagonal to keep moving closer to the farm at the same time. He utilized his stealth skill and slowed his pace while straining his vision through the dimming light to spot any signs of goblins. After 20 minutes the road finally came into view and Axlet was able to recognize the first hill of his journey as he looked back towards the uphill that he was almost ready to give up at before. He wasn’t able to see the farm through the now almost pitch black night but he knew it was close.

 

Quickly crossing the road he ran to the tree line on the opposite side and hid. From here he would travel along the road while covered by trees and the tree line wouldn’t break until the path his father had cut out and built when first setting up his home. It would only be a couple hundred feet from there. For fear of being spotted though he remained 20 feet from the road and kept his slow pace. Maintaining his deliberate movement became more and more difficult every passing minute. Not only was he losing light making it difficult to see where he was stepping but his body was giving out again and his mind could only think about getting to the heat of the wood stove inside his home.

 

 

Normally a skill learned would make Axlet jump with joy but even as he felt the pain in his legs alleviate he still could only think about getting home. After another few dozen minutes, he finally broke through the tree line and was able to make out the house ahead of him. Abandoning all the caution he had been exercising he ran as fast as he could, circling around the back of the house to the front door and bursting through. He immediately shut the door behind him and breathed the first sigh of relief in the past two days. Finally feeling the warmth of the indoors his eyes shot towards the wood stove where a pitiful log laid in a dying fire and he quickly grabbed the smallest log he could find in their supply next to the stove and throw it in before blowing onto the ashes to try to revive the flames. After a few tries the flames began growing again and he could feel the warmth emanating off of them.

 

With warmth seeping through his body all of his exhaustion quickly followed. Doing everything he could to resist he quickly changed out of his blood and snow soaked clothes setting them by the fire and donning his lighter clothing before pulling the blanket off his bed and laying down by the fire. Barely managing to make it next to the wood stove he laid down and by the time he was able to turn his head to his father’s bedroom he was fast asleep.