Chapter 10: Chapter 10

The group ran towards the farmhouse, the farmers falling behind. Anna reached it first, seeing that the roof was only smoking. The building wasn’t on fire. It seems the goblins didn’t make sure it was burning before running away. There were dark spots in a few places around the farmhouse, and a trail of dark that looked like something was dragged from inside. The door was hacked open. She entered it, seeing it had been ransacked. The party entered behind her, Lyreen lighting up the room and bringing it to full color. There was blood splattered everywhere. Thokri and Barika went running up the stairs, but they came down quickly. Thokri just shook his head. They left the farmhouse, and Lyreen cast a spell, its sparkles melting into the ground. “They went to the road,” she said, the party running to the ancient stone pathway. “They are heading west,” she said after looking down for a moment. They ran on the road, Anna slowing her pace so the others could keep up. The farmers were behind them in the distance.  

Following Lyreen’s directions, they ran down the road another twenty minutes before breaking off into the forest. From there, it was another half an hour until they came upon the entrance to the goblin’s burrow. There were goblins guarding the entrance, so Lyreen cast a bolt at them. It split in half part of the way there, hitting both goblins in the face. They sank to the ground, heads a smoking ruin. “Anna, you first. I will be next to Thokri. Lyreen, you and Barika take up the rear,” Voekeer said. Anna pulled out her club and trotted to the entrance, the party right behind her. A few feet into the burrow, she found her first goblin. It was short with spindly limbs, and it had a large hooked nose, huge ears, and small beady eyes. It wore a rough loin cloth that barely covered anything. Looking at her, it hissed, and Anna could see its mouth was filled with sharp teeth.  

She batted it to the side, smashing it against the wall. It fell over dead after the impact. She had learned from the bandits not to swing very hard since most creatures were quite fragile. The farther into the burrow they got, the fiercer the goblins became. Soon, even she couldn’t kill them fast enough. The men set to stabbing any that slipped past with their spears, Lyreen launching the occasional bolt to aid her. They went deeper and deeper into the burrow. It was a maze, and the only way they could keep track was with Lyreen’s magic. After an exceptionally hard battle, one where she simply started to splatter the goblins in an effort to keep them from the rest of the party, they entered a large room. It was a grisly site. They had found the farmers, parts of them anyway. The goblins had crudely butchered all of them and were feasting on the remains. She attacked the nearest goblin, and they all swarmed towards her. Every swing of her club killed half a dozen, and they kept coming.  

She backed up to the entrance so they couldn’t slip past to her friends. She killed and killed. The rest of the party killed as many as they could. Soon, the swarm seemed to break, and then they were chasing the rest of the goblins out of the room. They got a few, but most scurried down one of the many passages leading away from them. Anna felt defeated. They hadn’t made it in time. “There are no children here,” Barika said sadly. “That means there is a chance,” Anna said excitedly, rushing to a passage near the back that the goblins seemed to avoid. “Lass, wait!” Thorki yelled after her, but it was too late. She entered the room in front of her, and she saw a small goblin holding a child. It was chewing on the child’s face. She looked at the face again. It was little Anna. Half of her face was gone, and her remining eye stared blankly at her. The club slipped out of her hand, thumping in the dirt. “I didn’t make it. I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save her. Why...couldn’t...I...save...” Anna’s thoughts drifted away as she stood frozen for a moment. “I must kill the nightmares,” the Dreamer thought.  

It looked at the nightmare in front of it, causally stepping towards it. With all Anna’s speed and grace, it grabbed the nightmare by the head and squeezed, crushing its skull. The contents oozing onto her hand, it tossed what remained against the wall, splattering the nightmare. The dreamer looked around. “All of the nightmares must die,” it thought. Moving around the room, it tore the rest of them limb from limb, smashing them against the wall to make sure they were dead. Turning back towards the entrance, it spotted Anna’s companions. It walked up to them, standing still for a moment. “Lass, you ok?” the short companion asked. The dreamer stepped into the light one of the tall ones made. “Lass, is that you?” the short one asked again. The Dreamer looked at them. “The little one needs good dreams. These ones must live,” it thought. “You must go. Run. I will kill them all,” it said. “Aye,” the short one said, its voice shaking. It picked something up from the ground, and they turned and ran. “Good. They are gone. They will be safe,” it thought. It opened one of its eyes, and the thing floated next to her. “The little one’s eyes cannot see,” it thought, and summoned one of its own eyes. It found all the nightmares, and set off to destroy them.  

The nightmares thought that a lone woman was in the tunnels and swarmed out to kill her, hoping for an easy meal. They were wrong. The Dreamer moved among them. The creatures seemed to be standing still. It tore them apart with ruthless efficiency. Arms, legs, and heads went flying. Soon, the entire tunnel they had attacked her in was covered with gore, blood, and other things dripping off the walls and ceiling onto the floor which quickly grew slick with the horrible stuff. The nightmares tried to escape, but the Dreamer saw them all and moved slowly, room to room, only using its great speed when clearing them. It found every place they hid and ran them all down. Finally, it was nearly done. Only one room remained. The ones there stayed and tried to fight but died as quickly as all of the others. The dreamer saw tiny nightmares wrapped up in cloth, wiggling on the floor. It dashed them against the walls until the place was empty. The dreamer began to walk towards the entrance. “I must not leave the awakened one in this place. No good dreams remain here,” it thought. Once it had reached the tunnel leading to the exit, it paused. “This must not happen again. I must free the little one,” it thought. After a moment of working on her, it slowly faded as if drifting off to sleep once more.  

“What did I do, what did I do, what did I do?” Anna said, collapsing into a ball on the ground crying softly. Her chest burned badly and she felt dizzy. “They will hate me now. They will make me leave,” she thought. It took her a few minutes to recover. She stood up and walked slowly to the exit. Her dress was stiff with dried blood. She exited the burrow soon after. It was bright outside. “Was I in there all night?” she thought. There were more goblin bodies out front. These ones had been killed with a spear it looked like. Remembering the horrors from below, she shuddered. “Lass!” Thokri cried and ran to her before he paused for a moment. She looked at him, her eyes still wet with tears. “Oh, lass, it is you,” he said, hugging her so hard he lifted her off the ground. Setting her down, he looked at her again.  

The others had run over to join them. Lyreen grabbed her hand and pulled her over to where they had been sitting. There were chairs and a table. Lyreen helped her sit down. Her mind felt mushy. It was hard to think. “Where did the table and chairs come from?” she asked. “The farmers caught up with us and met us near the entrance. When we ran out, we told them the family was gone, and that you would take care of the rest of the goblins. They brought these out for us to use while we wait,” Voekeer said. “I killed them all,” Anna replied coldly. “Aye, a good thing too. Leave that many alone, and they would have wiped out the farmstead and marched on a nearby town before too long,” Thokri said. “It was good that I killed them?” she thought. “There were four hundred and twenty-two adults. Forty-three children, and twenty-seven babies,” she said. Voekeer whistled. “At least you aren’t squeamish about killing the babies.” “You are?” Anna asked.  

“By the tree, no. I’ve seen what happens when you don’t. My first contract was to scout for a full expedition. They cleared out a nest with five thousand adults because some dammed fool let the little ones live. The beasts had wiped out a town. Three thousand souls gone because someone had a soft heart. It was terrible. Half of the expedition was wiped out by the time we cleared the place,” Voekeer replied. The rest of them told her stories about having to clear nests, and the terrible cost in life it caused if they didn’t catch them early. She felt better now. “They don’t hate me,” she thought. 

“I was going to ask if you remembered what happed, but seeing as you just gave us an accurate number of the goblins killed sorted by age, I think we can rule out berserking,” Voekeer said. “So, what can you tell us about it?” he asked. “It was like everything that was me drained away, leaving something else that was cold and calculating and wanted nothing more than to rid that place of every goblin,” she replied. Lyreen shuddered. “I’m not jealous of you anymore. That sounds terrifying,” she said. “Aye,” Thokri added. “You were jealous of me?” Anna asked. “Yes, I think we all were at least a little,” Lyreen replied. The others shook their heads no. “How could you not be? Just look at her,” Lyreen said, her voice growing high pitched. Lyreen looked around for a moment, then sighed.  

“Sorry,” Anna replied. “You have nothing to be sorry about,” Voekeer replied. “Well, nothing you described sounds like any conditions I've ever heard of,” Barika said. “More Fae stuff,” Lyreen said, and they all agreed. “The other core is burning in my chest. It has been since I came back to my senses,” Anna said. Barika made a move to get her crystal, but then looked at Anna. “Maybe we wait till you get cleaned up,” she said. Thokri handed her a water skin, and she drank the whole thing. “Killing goblins for a night makes you thirsty,” she said. The others looked at her wide eyed. “Lass, you’ve been down there three days,” Thokri replied. "That explains why all the blood is dried,” she said, handing the skin back to the dwarf. He looked at it, and then tossed it over his shoulder.  

A few farmers walked up, carrying farm implements as weapons. By the look of them, they would do the job well. “Haven’t found any more of the buggers,” the man trailed off, looking at Anna. “Spit it out lad,” Thokri said bluntly. The man stuttered for a moment and then recovered. “We haven’t seen any goblins since the first night. I think we got them all,” he finished. “Good,” Thokri said, standing. He grabbed Anna by the arm and pulled her to her feet, walking back to the road while the other adventurers hurried after. He looked back momentarily. “Grab your shit and let’s be off,” he said to the farmers. They made it to the farmstead, and when they entered the gate, an old man walked over. “It’s done,” Voekeer said.  

“Thank you all,” the old man said. He looked at Anna then turned his head. “Lane, get the girls,” he shouted, and a nearby young woman ran off. “We need to get you cleaned up and fed, miss,” he said to Anna. Soon after, several women and a few teenage girls walked over. They took her by the hands and led her off. They went behind a large barn to an open space where the ground was covered in flat stones, and there was a trough next to a well. There were also several long tables. “We clean up after butchering animals here,” one of the women told her, and she nodded. “Alright, time to start scrubbing you,” the woman said. She shrugged. Expecting to clean herself, she was surprised at the statement. Peeling off her dress, she handed the crusty thing to one of the girls and sat on a stool that had been brought for her.  

They poured a cold bucket water over her head. “Sorry about that, but we can't heat it up out here,” another woman said. “It’s fine,” Anna replied. They started scrubbing her with brushes, and she noticed them rubbing the brushes with a yellowish white bar. This caused small bubbles to form on the brushes. “What’s that?” she asked. “This? It’s soap. We use it to clean, and it works better than just water,” the woman said. “I’ve heard of soap. They didn’t use it much back in Fishport,” she thought. “I’ll check the memories to be sure.” She looked into the memories, only to find them missing. Closing her eyes, she concentrated more but they just weren't there. “I wonder what happened to them?” she mused.  

The women quickly cleaned her off. Anna had informed them their thoughts of a haircut were in vain, so they glumly washed her hair, being sure to brush out all the goblin parts trapped within. Barika walked over, carrying one of her dresses. “No saving the other one,” she said, handing Anna the dress. “I thought so,” Anna said. Luckily it was the one with the hole in it anyway. Pulling on the dress, she looked around for her belt, not seeing it. “Where’s my belt?” She asked Barika. “Thokri has it, and by the sounds of it, he’s been having a hard time cleaning it. I don’t speak dwarven, but by the tone of his voice, I think if I did, even I might blush,” she replied. Anna grinned as they walked away. The two women entered the long house, joining their companions who were already seated at the table. “Feel better?” Thokri asked, handing over her belt. “Yes,” she said, putting it on.  

“What is berserk?” Anna asked. “In the northern tribes, some of the warriors can go into a trance that looks like they’re losing their mind, but they retain all their fighting prowess. They don’t feel pain, and you have to kill them to stop them,” Barika said, stopping to take a drink. “And they forget the whole thing after they calm down,” Barika finishes. “Oh. That's why you said I wasn’t berserking,” Anna said. “Yes, there’s no way what happened to you was that,” Voekeer said. “She’s a dam sight prettier than Olig as well,” Thokri said. All her companions seemed to make the same scrunching face upon hearing the name. “Who’s Olig?” she asked. “Lass, he’s more of a what than a who. I'll have to tell you his tale. He’s the only Northman ever to join up with us adventurers,” Thokri said. The tale he told involved a giant lunatic, copious amounts of ale, and a dozen deflowered maidens, finishing with a barfight that somehow caused a city block to burn down, and that was just the first day. “I want to meet him!” Anna said, her eyes sparkling. They all just groaned.  

Later that night, in their room, Barika was examining her again with the sight crystal. This time Anna was sitting, as only her chest was being checked. “I don’t see anything different,” Barika said. She touched Anna’s chest. “You’re hot enough that I'd say you have a fever, but its only here,” tapping the spot above the Dreamer’s core. “And nowhere else,” she continued, placing her hand on Anna’s forehead. “More Fae stuff,” Lyreen said, laying on her own bed. Barika sighed. “You're probably right,” she replied. Anna flopped onto her back, not feeling like getting dressed just to go to sleep. “I'm done with this place,” she said, and the two other women agreed. They left early the next morning, not bothering to say goodbye since they weren’t planning on returning. 

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