006

Stalking the edges of the Bloodletter tribal camp, I wait for my prey. The goblin hierarchy is simple: the stronger you are, the higher your rank. Anyone you can beat in a fight, you can command. It's simple. So if you want a goblin leader for any reason, seek out the biggest one. I don't need THE leader but I do need someone a bit bigger. If I wait here in the bushes outside of the camp long enough, eventually a larger gob will come by. Alone, preferably, but mostly alone is fine. I prepared a spike trap, which is just a wooden spike in a bush, to tip the odds in my favor. I also have my spirits waiting in ambush with me.

Like I said, one does come by. He's pretty big but not really chief-worthy. Not quite the size of two goblins. He has a posse of three regular gobs. No big deal. Attack!

Two of my goblins fall out of a tree right on top of the brute, knocking him on the ground and pinning him. The other three rush out of the bushes with me and engage the three bloodletters in a grapple. While the brute is pinned, I slit his throat and plunge one of my daggers into his chest just to be safe. Easy. Boars!

While the gobs are grappling, my boars rush into the bloodletters and knock them on the ground. I pick one up and throw him onto the spike I prepared in advance as my spirits take care of the other two. They have their brains bashed in until they're nothing more than a paste on the ground. I only need two heads at most. Five is already a lot. Before collecting them, however, I intend to do a little experiment. I relinquish three boar spirits and raise the two mostly intact corpses. Then I try to raise one of the headless ones and it works! I guess they don't need their heads. With that in mind, I relinquish all of my boar spirits and replace most of them with the goblins before beginning the process of beheading. I take the brute's head, naturally, and collect the other's from the spike.

Bloodletters have a practice of bloodletting. They do all sorts of things with the blood, including decorate their faces and bodies, which makes them stick out a bit. Our tribe isn't really known for anything other than the chief being the biggest gob around.

I make my spirits return and head home with a total of seven heads in tow. It's a real haul.

...

When I return to the tribe, I enter the chief's tent and give him all the heads.

"Bloodletters recruit. Take our gobs."

Immediately, Chief is sent into a rage and repeatedly kicks his own shoddy throne, smashing it into the dust. Absolutely enraged, he shouts at his servant. "Fetch Grognik!" At me, he yells "You! Gather your gobs! We go to war!" Right. My small squad. Another memory defect, I guess. When will it end? Finally, he storms out of the tent. Going to rile up the gobs, I guess. I should head to Red, though. As I walk towards the slave tents, I hear more shouting. Chief is sure pissed about this one. Good thing he's stupid. The other gobs begin joining in the shouting and the war cries begin.

Upon entering Red's tent, I can already tell he's concerned. He hears what's going on around him, naturally. "What's going on, Shade?"

"War. With Bloodletters. They've been recruiting our cowards" I lie.

"Will you be participating?"

"Yes. Chief demanded it." He sighs.

"Just be safe, alright? I don't wish to lose my friend." He gently smiles. I return a forced smile. I'm not as gentle as him and unlike him, smiling doesn't come naturally to me. I'm a killer through and through. I'm a manipulator, a liar, I'm sneaky, I'm a coward. I've no place being Red's friend.

"I'll be fine." There's a long silence. "There are going to be some changes soon."

"Changes?" I leave, the question unanswered, lingering in the air, as I turn and leave. It's time to prepare my squad. I've trained them personally and instilled different values in them, which is exceedingly rare and unquestioningly odd for a goblin. Hopefully they're truly loyal to me.