《Heart of the Forest (Hiatus)》Interlude 1

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The first day after The Beginning proved to be a long one. Especially so for the more isolated communities, after all, for any settlement with more than ten thousand inhabitants, the trial lasted two to three hours and then there were either no goblins or no humans (don't be mistaken, goblins are cowards, if you present strong resistance at key moments they quickly abandon their conqueror dreams and flee looking for greener grasses).

No, hard to reach places and low population regions were more tired (if they survived) by the time the goblin menace was dealt with. It ranged anywhere from four hours to eight, in rare cases ten the duration of their ordeal.

So it wasn't strange that when the exhausted population of these areas found out that goblins were only the first wave, they, almost unanimously and without contact between them, decided to make a run for any city near, leaving large swathes of countryside empty. This in turn provoked the unrestrained growth of the creatures that came.

It also had the unfortunate consequence of saturating the few big settlements still standing, making them the dreamland of the dark side of society (which had a much higher survival rate than normal citizen, just behind politicians and government officers).

The few that refused to leave their houses and hometowns had to adapt the fastest to a myriad of creatures and mutated animals. It was hard and some gave up in favor of trying their luck in the city, but the remaining few turned out to be ahead of the leveling curve due to the constant fighting.

It's important to note that there existed a radical difference between the new danger and the first one: while animal shaped creature are usually stronger and had better instincts, they're by no measure evil, they simply follow the predator against prey relationship with every other being. A dire wolf won't consider if you have children while he eats you, he would only feel his hunger. This signify that while the dire wolf would attack the lone wanderer, he wouldn't get near a big city except when famished.

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So government saw the solution to its population problem deciding to allow and reward hunting this creature to teach them to not get close. This went well until it backfired. It was discovered, several weeks later and too late to remedy, that when those weak goblins that had ran away and didn't suffer a culling from the others, stronger creatures, were given a chance to regrow their numbers. Then they returned threatening the bastions of humanity with human (goblin?) waves tactics, very tough to overcome.

From that point on, no more indiscriminate hunting was allowed nor reward given. After all, it was much better for a dire wolf to eat a goblin couple and maybe humans from time to time than to have to kick from the walls the hundreds of descendants that couple could spawn in a few months.

From an animal rights fighter with no more rights in its title.

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