Brokenscar leaning against the tree trunk observed; it was her, her way of moving while on the hunt and while true, humans looked the same to him and others of his race, her neck was unusual, long enough to mark her as different. She couldn’t be one of them, could she? Her hair colour though, now black tempted him to discount her and slap his companion for wasting his time. The longer he observed the more certain he became, the incredible release from her bow sealed any doubt, his companion hissed in appreciation, and he nodded and followed up with a guttural cackle.

He initially observed to make sure these humans weren’t going to enter his territory, as it was obvious one group was hunting the other. His eyes tolerant of daylight now the same as the eyes of his six companions. One of which, on watch high above in the tree canopy giving him warning, a black arrow released from his vantage point, meaning he needed to personally observe the potential visitors to their forest sanctuary. The long climb up the tree would irk him if proven a waste of time.

They camped in the north, preparing food stocks for Death Season and here to learn if they could supplement their stocks from the humans across the scrub and their goblin brethren in the nearby mountains. The southern camp, usually ideal for hunting, now depleted after ten months of their presence, gorging on flesh. He and his companions never ventured west, deeper into the forest, evil roamed there, and uncaring death stalked under those tree canopies.

His memory drifted back to the start of his life journey, his a long journey, left to die on the side of a mountain. Too many mouths to feed of course and while humans thought or imagined goblins ate their own, they didn’t, still they weren’t stupid enough to allow everyone to starve if there wasn’t enough food.

Those chosen weren’t always the weakest, sometimes politics intervened and those from family lines of past chieftains ended up selected. While currently not a threat the ruling Chieftain never knew for certain, one day they could breed a “big one”, a challenger for chieftain since they did once before, best to ensure they couldn’t acquire the chance.

Brokenscar’s family gave him hope, preparing him before expulsion from the last cavern, the doorway to the goblin caves of the Bloody Claws Tribe. He remembered his family; they were more a mix of goblins with an agreement not to kill each other centred on the strongest male. Brokenscar was fortunate the strongest male was his father; well there was some doubt as his mother was in high demand for mating!

This hope would lead him to some meagre food, mostly mushroom, some insect paste, and two weapons, a knife and a spear. The cold and wind of Death Season, his worst enemy and by goblin reckoning that season was upon them. Living underground for most of the time, the seasons were singularly noticed when mushrooms and insect paste fed the Chieftain instead of meat. This happened when the hunters couldn’t hunt for animal or human flesh due to severe weather. Therefore, two seasons existed in the goblin cave, Chieftain happy and Chieftain unhappy.

He found the treasure his family left him under a rock, a flat slab. Then he realised other families might leave gifts for their unfortunates. Those exiled were to leave with nothing but their clothes, certainly no food, and no weapons. Brokenscar decided to search the area and fortunately found another three stashes, food in all, and another knife in two and fur lined boots in the third. Elated, leaving voluntarily the night before proved a wise decision.

He smiled to himself as he recalled his wisdom as it made the difference and changed his fate. After all, an exiled now or a day later, the Chieftain’s bodyguards grabbing him and throwing him out he would much rather leave quickly and quietly.

Before daylight, he would need a shelter. Ideally, it would hide him as well. It was cold, the ground still free of any snow though, perhaps Death Season was still some nights away. Luck on his side. His instinct told him to stay on the mountain; this is what he knew, as did every Goblin. Given his wisdom about the stashes he decided to leave the mountain, none ever returned, therefore he would venture into the forest or into the human lands. The human lands probably, for some reason they were leaving their wooden caves and not returning.

Moving as fast as he could he left for the human lands. He wanted to leave the mountains behind and in fact, find himself as far away as possible at night’s end. Sprinting until his muscles burned, he rested and then pushed on. He found an abandon human wooden cave and entered it as the light of day began hurting his eyes; he needed to push through his half blindness. There was enough broken this and broken that to hide under, he felt himself safe. He remembered his small size and yellowish brown skin with wistful thoughts. He also wondered to this day, what if anything happened to the three who didn’t find their stashes.

The next night he was moving again, after he woke he consumed a small portion of his food and remarkably found water in a bucket at the end of a rope. The Goblin sense of smell typically excellent and he was no different. It was difficult to reach the water, as initially he spied a deep hole he needed to climb to the bottom of. Then he noticed the rope, he thought to use it to climb down. As he was evaluating where to tie it, he thought he needed to determine its length first. Tied to a smooth tree trunk, with a handle of sorts he thought he would turn it to lift the rope up.

It was strenuous for him as something heavy weighed down the end of the rope. After strenuous effort he realised his turning of the handle was hauling the water to him! These humans were smart to find water from the ground. Although he didn’t grasp farming, he knew water would make things grow, the mushrooms in the caves depended upon water. So why were the plants in and near this wooden cave dead when there was water in the hole?

No time remained to him to analyse his new world, night fell, and he needed to scurry along again. The bushes and abandon farms provided enough cover and he learnt from others of his kind humans could not see well in the dark. The forest was near to the wooden house he ended up in; he found it at the end of the night, plenty of time to make a hidden shelter of sorts for his rest this time. On the verge of sleep, he awoke to voices.

He couldn’t understand the words although when they started to fade he crept from his hidden bed and observed the two humans enter the forest. One of those humans with dark earth brown hair and female the other tall and strong with long light brown hair, a giant to him. Spying from the shadows of the wooden cave, his eyes still hurt and the two humans quickly dropped from his sight amongst the trees and the foliage. He hid again and slept.

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Voices gradually woke him up again, except they were not arriving or leaving, they were with him. Remaining completely still for fear of being found, he could do nothing and the aromas coming from their fire sent him into a drooling delirium. They were cooking meat! Anxious, his stomach could rumble at the best of times, he was hungry as dusk arrived and the aroma of the prepared flesh twisted his self-control!

When the two humans quietened, he was tempted to escape his hidden safe place, and decided not to, they would leave for sure in the morning. He spied on them as best he could, although mainly listening and smelling them both during the night. The day well advanced before they started eating, some round things and squares, the squares smelt best. Then they were gone, back into the forest.

Sensing his moment, he explored their camp. Firstly, his nose drew him to the small animals hanging invitingly they were meat! Would they miss one? Where did they come from? How could they possess so many? His sense of smell picked up more outside and as he squinted to look he realised it wasn’t more at all, these were missing parts of them. Did they cut their skin off? He compared the skins to his boots and realised the skin was similar; human boots he gasped, no wonder they were special, extremely warm and soft.

He then took an interest in the curved lengths of wood. A weapon perhaps of some sort since the girl was wearing one across her back, although he couldn’t work out how. Every time he placed one of the lengths across his back, it fell to the ground. There were also some pointed sticks, which didn’t seem too useful as weapons. He was such a novice in the way of the world back then he thought to himself now. Then of course, he investigated the backpack. There was their bed stuff, some square blocks, and finally a sword! Well it was a dagger to them although easily a short sword for a squat goblin.

His companion nudged him to return him to the present to witness the strange behaviour of the horse. It acted as if it was thinking for itself! It was definitely acting as a lure and yes, it worked well you clever girl or perhaps clever warrior? She was still using a bow he realised and he knew well why she should, well skilled when he first spied upon her and her companion and he imagined her greatly improved after two more years.

Then he noticed something strange, they crowded, bent over the feet of one of their kills. Why would they? While he knew her well from a distance, he didn’t reckon she would answer any of his questions! Although his daylight sight significantly improved over the years, the distance was too far to observe any reasonable detail; their actions would remain a mystery. He permitted himself a small chuckle and needed to wave away his companion and instruct him to keep watch.

He remembered he was tempted to steal as much as he could carry, it was day, and where could he run? The choice became easy, follow them, learn from them, devour meat the food of Chieftains, and live as long as fate would allow. He was lucky they were young and thought they were always alone.

After a number of weeks, he returned to the mountain, armed with a bow and a number of arrows. The bow was one she cast off, he didn’t understand why although thankful, he learnt to master it, and learnt to make arrows for it. The arrows weren’t as sound as hers were, although he was improving. It was always safer to kill or wound your prey or your enemy at a distance, especially if you are small! He took some rabbit meat with him.

He didn’t wait many days, as the odour of the meat he carried attracted the hungry. The first was not what he was searching for, fortunately, the starving wolf was too hungry for cunning, and Brokenscar was able to wield his bow and arrows to introduce it to death and peace. He practiced skinning and preparing the larger animal as a change from rabbits, since he mastered them many rabbits ago.

He met his first companion the next night. The meat nearly killed him, as it was rich fare from what the starving wretch usually scavenged to feed on and the rot in the meat played no significant part. Fortunately, offered the choice, his body chose to absorb the offered meat instead of killing him. They both returned to the human wooden cave then and Brokenscar taught him how to survive in the forest and enjoy the meat the forest provided. They were both skilled in time to survive Death Season outside of the Goblin cave, their place of birth.

Throughout Death Season, he knew the Goblin Chieftain would exile more and it was towards the end of the Season Brokenscar camped, waiting for more companions. He considered recruiting females, finally deciding their presence would complicate things, and by accident, one was. She made the wise choice of pretending to appear male, although after a month, she bled and they smelt her. By then she established herself as a he and she settled in denying the male goblins to her body, which prevented awkward jealousy and disruptive conflict. Brokenscar appreciated her solution, any trouble and he would have murdered her. She was fanatical about hunting, claiming and eating her kills, she realised quicker than others did meat meant strength and size. By the time she bled, she was equal in size and strength to her companions, except Brokenscar.

After two years in the forest, Brokenscar understood meat and its value. He was shorter than the human girl was when he first saw her. Now taller than her, his body grew and kept on growing as he ate more meat and bones. He understood now why the Chieftain and his favourites claimed every scrap of meat and they were happiest when eating meat. Although they were large, which assisted the Chieftain win the throne, he was growing larger, as were his companions, which would ensure he kept the throne. The forest provided other food, fish from streams and more, the varied diet possibly made a greater difference. The other odd thing, their skin changed from yellowish brown, to yellow and was now more green than yellow.

Brokenscar also knew, with his companions he could return to the Bloody Claws Tribe, fight and defeat the Chieftain. He needed to decide if he wanted to, could he return to live in a cave given what he knew about the forest. He also wouldn’t miss wondering when his tribe would try to slay him.