Chapter 8

The Goblin led him to the edge of the Goblin tribe’s cavern. As they walked a fine drizzle started to fall from the crystal formation that crisscrossed the ceiling. Rain held out a paw and a few small droplets landed on his paw pads. He realized belatedly that the Goblins used tents for more than just keeping the perpetual crystal light out of their eyes when they wanted to get some sleep. The ecology of the dungeon was more than anything he had imagined in his past life.

They came to the cavern wall and slipped into a small side tunnel. The light from the cavern crystals rapidly dimmed and vanished behind them. Fortunately they both had excellent night vision so this wasn’t an issue as it would have been when Rain was human.

A short distance later Opal held up a hand and they came to a stop. She pulled a wooden device from a nook in the wall and Rain realised after a moment that it was some kind of handmade trap. Not hard to figure out considering the foot long dead rat inside.

Opal pulled apart the wooden frame and extricated the rat, removing a small wooden stake that had ended the rat’s life in the process.

“Uhm, well it’s not as big as the fish...”

“It’s fine,” said Rain taking it in paw. “A hungry person doesn’t complain when given food. And I’m always hungry.”

He munched on the rat as they walked, every twenty meters or so Opal would stop and magic a new trap from some crack or hole in the wall. Most of them contained rats but two had a small lizard that was delicious if not very filling.

“You seem to have a natural affinity for caves and tunnels.”

“Well I was born to be a scout.”

“What does that mean?”

“I was born with some memories from Gobbo ancestors, a knack for telling direction, knowledge of the dungeon’s shape, how to recognize when water is near, trap making. I was lucky.”

Rain blinked at her. “Like you came out of the womb knowing this stuff?”

“Yes, exactly. Monster tribal memory is powerful. Gobbos are born knowing how to speak Common, that’s why Gobbo babies are so annoying, they can tell you exactly what they are demanding and in great detail.”

“I was going to ask how you spoke Common so well, I didn’t think Goblins would have much need for teaching.”

“We don’t, Gobbos learn mostly from tribal memory.” She shrugged. “Maybe Gobbos could make a better life for themselves if they did, but Gobbos just don’t make very nice or constructive tribes. I realised that because I was a scout and spent more time away from the tribe than other Gobbos.”

“Was your tribe the only Goblin tribe?”

“Nope. We were the great lake tribe, just one of many, though most aren’t very powerful. Ours was one of the deepest, most Gobbo tribes prefer to remain near the surface. Less monsters and the levelers tend to be weaker and not as much of a threat.”

“Do you think that any of those tribes might come and try to move into your tribe’s cavern now they are gone?”

“I think, that ... that...”

She paused suddenly and started listening intently, her knife ears twitching.

“What is it?”

“Shh.”

She gestured and they moved up the tunnel.

Toward the end, a flicker of light appeared. Warily they approached it trying to not make a sound. They reached the edge and peaked around the corner. An open cave met their eyes and in the centre a fire upon which a rack of rats were roasting.

Around the fire sat a half dozen Kobolds. Scaled lizard people a multitude of colours with long tails and about the same height as a Goblin.

Opal tugged Rain back.

“You know I was going to say who might move into the crystal cave?” She hooked a thumb at the light. “Those Kobolds would. They don’t like Gobbos, I don’t like Kobolds, nasty vicious things, they would love to roll over Gobbo territory.” The light flickered off her eyes as she looked at Rain with intensity.

“What should we do?”

“We should definitely kill them,” she hissed. “Kill and eat them.”

Rain gnawed on a claw. “Alright, but how? I saw them, they have spears, and while I might have tougher skin than you would expect I don’t want to risk some fluke hit taking me down.”

Opal rubbed her chin. “Well, they aren’t actually holding their spears, they’re on the ground by their sides, so if you can take them by surprise...”

“What did you have in mind?”

“I’ll go round the side and draw their attention, you wait here and watch, and then attack when they are distracted.”

She shifted past him and vanished into a crack in the wall. Rain settled down to watch, an eye peeking around the corner to spy on the Kobolds. They hadn’t noticed anything fortunately and they seemed relaxed.

One of them belched and lazily poked at the rats roasting over the fire with his foot.

“Stupid Gobbos, just leaving their traps out,” grumbled the Kobold.

“Weird though,” said another.

“Whatdya mean?”

“Well I’ve never seen all of the traps full when we try to steal from them, usually they check to see if they caught anything. It’s like something happened to stop them doing the rounds.”

“Pshh, it’s just Gobbo laziness, same reason we haven’t seen any patrols.”

“Dunno if I believe that. Gobbos are lazy but they don’t want to starve.”

“Yeah, somethings gotta have happened to ‘em. Maybe a big monster found them.”

“We can only hope!”

The group cawed with laughter.

“Hey I’m serious!” said an indignant Kobold flicking sand at the Kobold next to him with his tail.

The target Kobold spluttered sand out of his mouth and glared at the indignant Kobold.

“h-hElp,” quavered a distant voice.

“Hey, what was that?”

“Huh? I didn’t hear anything.

“H-help mee.”

“No, there’s a voice, there it is again.”

The most attentive Kobold, and least lazy, climbed to his feet and looked around with curiosity.

At that point Opal came limping from around a corner. She’d removed all her clothes and was buck naked only covering her shame with her hands.

“Holy shit, is that a clean Gobbo?!”

Opal paused for a moment hearing that, a look of irritation momentarily crossing her face, but then she regained control of herself and kept walking.

“Why’s she naked?”

“I don’t know do I. Why don’t you ask her?”

“Hey, Gobbo girl, why are you naked? And why are you approaching us?”

“I- Oh gods, it was terrible! A group of Human levelers! They’ve taken over our Gobbo camp and turned us all into slaves, even worse they made us bathe!”

“See! See! I told you something had happened! I told you so!”

“Oh shut up Kiln.” One of the Kobolds tossed sand at the triumphant Kobold.

“Okay Gobbo girl so you lost your tribe, but that doesn’t explain the nakedness.”

“The l-levelers, they took all of us girl Gobbos and they, they, oh I can’t even say it, you know what they do to monster slaves. I escaped when one of the men tried to pin me down and ravage me, now I’m here...”

The Kobolds grumbled.

“Levelers, tchh, they get worse every year, this is our dungeon, a monsters dungeon, they got no right coming in here, even if it is Gobbos getting killed we’ll be next on the chopping block.”

“Well whatcha wanna do with this one?”

“Let’s eat her.”

Opal let out a pitiful whimper.

“Eat her huh?” said one raising a brow suggestively.

“No, shutup, I mean kill her and eat her.”

“No! P-please! I’ll do anything! Just protect me!”

She scrambled toward the standing Kobold and came to her knees in front of him, clutching at his thighs

“I-I’ll do anything! I’ll be your rutting post! I got skills! I can suck the polish of a pommel, l-let me show you!”

“H-hey! Get off!”

The other Kobolds shook with laughter as the unfortunate standing Kobold tried to push off her advances.

“Ahahah! Ooh Bairns gonna do it with a dirty Gobbo! Have a bunch of half Gobbo kids!”

“N-no, I’m not! Get off me you crazed Gobbo!”

“Mind, I’ve ever seen a clean Gobbo, she’s not bad on the eyes...”

“Oh, you too? Wait till I tell your girl Kiln, she’ll run a sword up your butthole just for thinking that!”

“No wait! I was joking! Nasty ugly Gobbo! Yuck!”

By this point most of the group was rolling around belly laughing.

Rain took this as his opportunity and slunk from the wall, padding across the sand as silent as a shadow. Three seconds, four seconds, five, he saw Opal eye him from around the standing Kobold’s thighs that she was holding tightly in place.

Suddenly one of the Kobolds happened to glance his way and the Kobold froze. Rain Moved.

He shot across the remaining sand like a thunder bolt. Half the spears were collected on one side of the fire and he managed to kick them into the fire before twisting his momentum and falling on the nearest Kobold. A flickering sight of a terrified Kobold face passed his vision and then his jaws closed around his throat and he ripped out the unfortunate lizard person’s windpipe. Blood sprayed from the wound arcing with his jaws. It sprayed across the nearest Kobold from head to toe, paralysing the monster with the abrupt and unexpected violence.

The Kobolds started yelling and screaming, pure panic making them mindless. Opal took the opportunity to push the Kobold she had been harassing into the fire, the Kobold screamed as the flame licked over him. She managed to grab two of the spears and throw them in with him.

Rain launched himself from his first victim. He ignored the one who had been splattered with blood, better to focus on those who were trying to fight back than those frozen in fear. He landed on a Kobold attempting to drag one of the spears from the fire, burning his claws in the process. He hit its back hard and slammed it into the sand where he was able to get at the back of his neck unrestricted. He crunched down and crushed the Kobold’s spine instantly stilling its desperate attempts to escape.

“Behind!” screamed Opal. Rain turned just in time to dodge a Kobold carrying a smoking spear that he had managed to drag from the fire. The Kobold roared in frustration as the blade tip missed Rain’s head by inches and he tried to pivot to hit Rain with its shaft. Unfortunately for the Kobold a paw landed on said shaft and the Kobold was taken completely by surprise by Rain’s strength as Rain ripped it from his claws and smashed him around the head with it so hard it broke his neck. The Kobold corpse flopped bonelessly to the ground.

A burning Kobold ran screaming from the fire before collapsing on the sand.

Only two left standing. Opal was handling the blood-spattered one, or at least was trying to. The best she could do was fend it off as it tried to snap and bite at her. The other Kobold had the only spear that had not fallen into the fire.

“You bastard! I’ll kill you!”

It charged at Rain and he dove out of the way. The Kobold was far more prepared than its brethren however and pivoted to track Rain with the spear tip. Rain could only watch in frustration as the metal point punctured his shoulder, unable to escape its reach. He howled in agony as the Kobold pinned him to the sand.

“What new kind of monster are you!? What dark abyss did you crawl from?!” snarled the Kobold.