The Long Dreary Chase

Rains set in. Rain set the pace and the mood of the hunters. The goblins they had attacked had been but a few. After much questioning though, they ascertained that Gronth’s raiding party had only been a tiny fraction of the goblin force that was heading south. This was dreary news indeed and the rain did little to alleviate the feeling that they were riding into death.

Nat discussed his discoveries of the night before with Dyl that morning. In the Gronth and Nat again paired off and sparred with each other. Jerlom must be an awesome fighter to have managed to capture this goblin! Nat thought. The goblin crushed any offensive Nat made and pounded defenses literally into splinters as their practice swords often snapped. It felt good loosing all his built up energy though! Dyl smiled as he watched them fighting. One of the reasons the goblin was so tough to sword fight, he observed was because the goblins used his smaller size to his advantage and had a foreign style of sword fighting because of his different build. Nat was learning this style though. Dyl watched Nat execute several complex attacks only to be rebuffed by Gronth’s rock solid defense. Gronth would then counter-attack with quick, short slashes. Nat would then stop them and the duel would last for minutes before one or the other dealt out a good hit and the round was over. Today Gronth had won 5 our of 8 rounds. Nat was catching up though. As they sparred Gronth would often talk about his home and discuss different goblin techniques while Nat grunted with the effort of stopping his stick.

“Translated this move is called ‘Splitting the Skull’,” came the gravelly voice as it demonstrated nearly knocking Nat cross eyed. Nat blocked the blow and retaliated. “Ah yes…I haven’t fought many humans as I am so young…we goblins do not rely on speed so much as our brute strength to crush people. Your attacks are difficult to block in time! As my master always told me, when your opponent is faster than you, you must rely on skill to survive. My mother also believes in wounding the opponent before killing them to slow them down if they are faster than her.” Having said this the goblin proceeded to sweep Nat’s feet out from under him…only Nat’s feet weren’t there suddenly. Gronth brought his practice blade up just in time to catch a huge blow that cracked both swords and staggered Gronth. “You are good, Human! A worthy opponent if ever I met one!”

These duels were the only highlights of the dreary trip. They finally reached the Southern Wastes and there was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. Dunes stretched out endlessly. The Goblin said that there was water to be found but it would take two days to reach it and an additional 4 days to reach the mountains on the other side of the desert. It could have been a trick of the imagination but one could almost see a mountain peak through the dust and sand. There was no other way to get to the goblins. The goblin tracks led straight into the desert. It would be fastest to cut straight through and then sail from Tyldaria to one of the ports further north from which they could then send their families home and then go back to the army. It would be the only way they could rescue their families and return to the army before they were listed as deserters.