Chapter 26: Kelan

Kelan was the strongest goblin warrior of the tribe, next in line to become the next chief, the only goblin with a power name, the rest of the goblin only have powerless names, or weak professions, and unlike the other goblins that were only one meter tall, Kelan was one and a half meter tall.

He had grown tall and strong and over all smart after absorbing the teachings of the great elder of this village of goblins, if not for the great elder this village would had not come to exits in the first place, the great elder has gift them wisdom, and it was a treasure that surpassed any other gifts for the goblins.

With this wisdom the goblins in this village would had persist long time ago and as of now, this was one of the few remaining goblin villages left in the Deathmatch Forest, they can only be grateful of that to the great elder teachings, thanks to him the goblins maybe have a future, nevertheless even with wisdom, life was never easy in this forest, food was scarce, and the goblins weak, nevertheless they have survived until now.

Hunter gathering was the most difficult job in the goblin tribe, nevertheless, each year Kelan never lacks goblins willing to join one of 15 team of hunters.

While Kelan was supervising the training of the new goblins hunters, a commotion was occurring in the village entrance, one of the team of three goblins was coming back running and… he was alone, that could only meant that his team has being wipe out and he was the last remaining survivor.

Things like this were common occurrences in the village, the goblins could only be feel saddening pain in their chest about the death of their hunters, goblins too have a heart after all, but they have to remain strong and never lost their will to live.

This time a tiny miracle had occurred as they spotted a second goblin running after the first one, now everyone focused their sights on the forest waiting for the final goblin, but… after the time passed by no goblin other has come out from the forest, all the guards could only let out a small sigh, and be happy that this time around that only one goblin was the victim.

Each life in the goblin village was a precious thing, and every time a goblin die all the village would feel the lost and mourn his dead like they would for his brother, father, or own son, because in this small village with only 200 goblin, practically everyone was related to each other, you could differentiate between a male and female, because the males have a dark green skin, and the females have a light grey skin.

A gobbling guard rushed to Kelan was to bring him this news as fast as he could.

After running throughout the entire village, the guard was out of breath as he reached Kelan.

[Kenan (guard)]: “…Kelan…. Part of the hunter team 12…. cough cough…. has come back”

The guard, Kenan, has come rushing and was missing his breath, but still gave the important information to Kelan.

‘That’s the team of…’

Kelan was not a fool, he knew something bad has happen for the guard to come here rushing, and about all, the team 12 was still scheduled to come back in 3 more hours, to come early means something has happen to them.

That’s right, the goblin divided themselves in 3 goblins per team, the hunted with a predefine route, as they also set an estimates of when they should be coming back, using the sun as a guide for the time, if the team didn’t come back on time, another team that Kelan would lead himself would be dispatched to find the missing team, save them if he can, burry their remains if not, avenging their death was only when possible.

Kelan could only shook his head, it has being only a single day since the last death, now another one, Kelan could not help to say his usual line, he felt disgusted each time he say it to his own lack of power, but he has to do it, he had to remain strong to every goblin in this village.

[Kelan]: “How many”

This was the two words he hated the most, but it was the only thing he could say, he can’t dress the true in pink, someone was death, and now he needs to know how may, he needs to rebalance all the teams, go to the family of the goblins that had perish, find their remains burry them, find how they die, all that while he remained strong and compose in the outside.

Kelan could only feel pain as he cares for each and single life of the goblins inside this village, and for the goblins Kelan was their pillar, towering above all of them, holding all their hopes and dreams of a future. He can’t be broken, he can’t be weak, he needs to do his job as the leader, and he can’t let emotions get on the way.

The guard Kenan, could only feel ashamed of himself for being so powerless, Kelan would always say the same thing every time, over and over again, always with the same face as a remainder, they understood it, but they could not carry the same load Kelan was carrying with him, they would only crumble to such weight in a single day.

With a cracking voice almost as crying, Kenan could only reply to this question each time.

[Kenan]: “two, we spotted 2, before I had come here, they didn’t have any wounds on them”

Kelan nodded and left out a sigh that nobody could hear, ‘at least it was not completely wipe out’.

In a completely wipe out, best case scenario, only one goblin comes back half death only to rely a messaged and die, or just to die after being spotted by the guards.

He hated himself for thinking scenarios like that, nevertheless his face never show any hint of hate, remorse or despair, it was a frozen lacked any emotions, a face that remained the same as always, calm and compose.

[Kelan]: “I will go to talk to them, go to the elder house and deliver this news, I will be going for the remains with team 14 and 15, we will follow the same route as team 12, expect my return in 2 hours’ time, if I don’t come back, don’t let any team come after us, nod if you understand”

Kenan was kneeling on the ground, he was holding back his tears, this was too much, he was asking to not let anyone go after him, their only pillar, Kenan was sure that if Kelan doesn’t come back, all the goblins in the village will come out searching for him, how can he a simple guard stop the entire village, he could not agree to this, he can’t he was not strong enough, every time Kelan would give the same orders and as time went on agreeing to such orders was becoming increasingly difficult to him.

Why not let the remaining’s of the death goblin alone, why he had to search for them putting his life own life in risk every time, should he not be happy only with two goblins being alive? Why he has to search for the body too, Kelan is far more important after all, and most of the time Kelan did not find a thing but only blood.

Nevertheless Kenan could not voice out his thoughts, he too was weak, too weak in fact as he hated himself for thinking like this, when he volunteered to this job he didn’t knew it would be this hard.

Kelan took notice of the indecisive look in the face of Kenan, and could only feel his blood boiling, why goblins have to be this weak, why they can’t be strong, like orcs or tall like the ogres, do the god’s hate them? They did something wrong? Was this a punishment?

Nevertheless, if Kelan loosed his mind right now and lashed out to this goblin, then all the years of training with the wise elder would be put to waste, the elder has shown them the way, and he can’t break no now, no ever.

Letting out a sigh to himself, Kelan kneeled in front of the guard, Kelan knew this guard name very well, because he knew the names of all goblins, he had memorized them all.

[Kelan]: “Kenan, listing to me, I will be back, I promised this in my name, this is just a measure so no more goblins blood is shed today or in the future, your job is to calm down all the goblins that come to the gates, and tell them to wait for me here, I can only count on you to do this task.

Kenan could only break into a cry, a grown goblin crying like a little kid, truly a sight to be seen, nevertheless nobody of the present goblins was laughing or mocking at him, no, they also wanted to cry but they were holding their tears back, the goblins were so weak and powerless, making look their pillar Kelan even taller, Kelan height maybe was small for the other races, but for the goblins Kelan was as tall as the sky, he was supporting the sky himself.

Kenan wipe away his tears, Kelan was counting on him, he can’t let him down, the leader of the village was trusting him with a mission and he will carry on with it, no matter what he will stop any goblin that comes to the gates, but first he needs to pass this messaged to the elder goblin.

Doing a powerful nod, Kenan face instantly change from a weak goblin to a furious one, one that was prepare for everything, and not a trace of that weak goblin was left, Kelan could only nod back at him.

[Kenan]: “I will carry this mission with my life Kelan, you can trust in me, I will tell the elder the news and you can let me to guard the gates after you leave”.

[Kelan]: “Very well, team 14 and 15 with me, we depart in 30 minutes, prepare everything for a trip of 2 hours, you recruit (Kerta), go to Alkan house, and tell her that… team 12 has come back”

Turning around Kelan started to walk in the direction that the guard has come from, now the only thing remaining is listening to the team 12 history, the team of his sister husband was in.

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.

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Kelan entered the room where the two goblins of team 12 where put.

When they saw Kelan entering the small house, the immediately kneeled in the floor, to every goblin in here Kelan was practically the village chief, but it was more than that, if they could they would make him a king.

[Kelan]: “Get up and tell me what happen”

The two goblins looked each other and nodded, it was the one at the right that started talking, nevertheless neither of them get up.

[Kertan]: “We spotted a very tired human kid after fighting a horned boar, he was alone and had managed to kill the wild boar, because he was hurt and looked very tire, we took the chance to attack him to take over the wild boar body, even we you followed your teachings, we let… Keltan, die, we were winning the fight as we were wearing him down and managed to hurt him but, he used some kind of skill with his silver spear that freeze us in place, and them out of nowhere he threw a golden spear with incredible speed, Keltan could not dodge it”

Kertan went in silence, he could not keep narrating how the life of one of their own kind was lost, so Kergan took on him as he keep narrating for Kelan.

[Kergan]: “After that the human that was just at death doors suddenly was full of energy, and was willingly to fight us to the death, we followed elder teaching to prevent more deaths and fled, splitting in two directions so at least one of us could come back alive, we also leave behind some traps but the human never followed after us”

[Kertan]: “Kelan it was my mistake, I was the one that said we should attack the human kid, because of me, Kergan, my brother life was lost, I don’t deserve to be alive, please punished me, I will gladly offer my life to make up my mistake”

[Kergan]: “Please take my life as well it is also my fault, I also agreed to…”

Before Kergan could continue Kelan interrupted him.

[Kelan]: “Enough!”

Kertan and Kergan were putting out their own necks, ready to die for their mistakes, a goblin life was a great treasure that was above all, no greed nor internal fight would serve as excuse to kill another goblin or take another goblin life because of it.

Kelan only shook his head, it was this believe that prevented the goblin village to fall apart and what prevent Kelan for taking another goblin life, but even if that was the case how can he punished them when they thought they have a chance of procuring food for the entire village, how could they no take on the chance, Kelan would had made the same choice as them.

But they made two crucial mistakes, one was looking down in the human kid, they should had know better to not look down in any other race, and the second mistake was that they should had come back immediate and look for Kelan and gather more numbers, because a lone kid would not be able to move a 300 kilogram boar very far away, they had being blinded by greed.

“Even after all the teachings of the great elder goblins, they are still goblins, weak and small goblins” Kelan thought to himself once again.

They too had now realized their own mistakes, that’s why they were asking to die to make up their mistakes.

The principal enemy of the goblins was they own nature, they were designed to be nothing more than cannon folder, cannon fodder that could think and walk, and feel pain and emotions, what kind of cannon fodder was this? Kelan could only grit his teeth, and curse the gods that put so cruel destiny to them, nevertheless his face didn’t show any change, and remained the same like it was frozen in time.

[Kelan]: “You two will have half rations of food for a month, and the other half of your ration will be given to Keltan family, do you have any objections, is so, speak now”

With a cold tone, Kelan was imposing a hard punishment on them, in this forest were food was very sparse having their food cut in half was a sentence of die of starvation, if they were not lucky they could die after a month, but…

[Kertan]: “Kelan Please… give all of my food to Keltan family, half is not enough to pay for my sin”

[Kergan]: “Me to, I will give all my food for Keltan family”

Kelan could only shook his head, even if goblins were… weak and stupid… but they care for each other a lot, even if he gave them half death sentence, they still wanted the full sentence, letting a mental sigh, that didn’t show up in his face, Kalan could only…

[Kelan]: “Your request is refuse, I still need you two to be alive to gather food for the rest of the village in the future, half is as low as I can go, think in what your families would do without you the next time you two want to die, you are goblins, so make up for your mistakes while you gather food for the village, and don’t ever think of dying before you pay out your debt to Keltan family, do you understand”

Kelan their pillar, always took the best decisions that they could never made, Kelan a tower holding the sky for them, Kergan and Kertan started to cry while bowing in front of Kelan, their heads touching the floor.

[Kergan]: “I understand Kelan. I will not die until I pay my debt for the rest of my life with Keltan family”

[Kertan]: “I will do as Kelan commands, thank you Kelan, please keep guiding the goblin village forever to a bright future”

Kelan nodded his head, and exited the room, in the span of just 10 minutes he had made 3 grown goblins cry like little children’s, Kelan could only let out a sigh, before gritting his teeth again.

The goblins are so weak so powerless, is there any hope for them? Are they doom since the day they are born? Why the goblins were even born for? To be cannon fodder? If so how they had managed to stay alive so far, was it because goblins like Kelan?

Kelan could not believe this to be the case, he was only one goblin, even if he was the strongest of all individually, if 200 goblin were to come after him, he was sure he could not beat them all.

Goblins were no weak creatures, born to be step on and die as cannon fodder, goblins were a strong race, all the proof that Kelan needs his the air he was breathing right now, he was alive, because his ancestors had fought very hard battles, high and low, so goblins could live to this day, this was also one of the teaching of the great elder.

‘Never forget you origins, and be proud of what you are, even to this day goblins still remain’

Yes a goblin individually was weak and pathetic, but together they were strong, Kelan doesn’t need to worried about the goblin future, even if he were to die someday, goblins would remain in this land after him, he only needs to do his best to carry on the legacy of the goblins before him and nothing more.

Thinking like this, that weight that was burring Kelan to the ground, lessened a little bit, he could now breathe again, and his lifeless eyes that he had after coming out of the room had come back to life again.

Turning around he could see Alkan with a worried face in the other side of the of street, Kelan could only shook his head to her, as Alkan dropped to the ground and started to sob, Alkan, his own sister, his husband has die this morning, and Kelan could do nothing about it, he could not even offer her any counseling, he was busy, he had things to do right now as the leader of the goblins.

[Karkan]: “Kelan Team 14 and 15 reporting in, we are ready to depart at any time”

[Kelan]: “Let’s go”

Turning around Kelan leave Alkan sobbing behind him and left the village using the front gate.