013

Looking around, most of the gobs are terrified of my magic. Terror is good. "Fetch Red," I tell Grak. I need to solidify their fear into a target and force them to accept me. I think opening myself up to challengers will do that. Regardless, I'm certain we'll lose some numbers by the end of the day. "Any challengers?" A sudden cacophony of voices begins--too many to pinpoint any one voice--as the gobs are stirred in excitement. They're agitated. I can vaguely hear a few insults.

"ME!" A few giant goblins step forth. Not as big as the chief--the ex-chief--and not as big as Grognik but bigger than me. I nod to my squad and they all pierce the challengers with their spears. Some through the gut, some through the throat, some through the chest. There's audible gasping from the crowd. It's a show of power. Not personal strength but strength of a different kind. I decide to give a small speech as everyone is looking.

"Me know magic. Me wizard. Strong. Strong enough to kill Chief. Strong enough to kill you. Chief was strongest in forest. That makes me strongest in forest. You leave, you die. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you die. Eventually. Any challengers?"

This time, no one steps forth and the crowd quiets down. They've mostly accepted their roles. Just as I finish my speech, I see Red approaching unshackled and give him a giant smile. "Red! We did it!" I jog over and hug him.

"We did what, Shade? You did what?" He gives me a confused look.

"I killed the chief. Now you're the chief." I pat him on the back. "I'll listen to you and they'll listen to me."

"You... you killed the chief?!" He shouts, aghast. "Shade! That was too risky!"

I nod. "I know but it's already done."

"It's... already done..." Red looks at his wrists, then up. "And I'm the new chief?"

"Mhm. You're the new chief. They may not accept you but they have no choice. I'll enforce your power."

"No, no, no. No. Shade, I can't be the chief. I'm weak!"

"You are. But I'm strong. Don't worry. It'll work out. Slowly. Grak will accept you. His men will accept you. That's all that matters for now."

"I see..."

"Follow me to your new tent, Cheif." I beam.

...

After a while, Red has had time to adjust and we've redecorated the chief's tent. We removed all the skulls and the throne, instead replacing them with a large table in the middle with a crudely drawn map of the forest and its various territories. Having absorbed what's left of the Bloodletter Tribe and now taken control of what was once the Gi-go tribe, we are by far the largest goblin tribe around at about 400 men. Even if some of those leave--and they will--to create their own tribes or join another existing tribe, the second largest tribe is the Forestwalker tribe at about 150 goblins.

"I don't know about being made chief..."

"Look, forget about it. For now, what do we need to do?"

"We'll need to send out some scouts," says Red.

"Scouts?" I say questioningly. I know Red didn't want to be chief but he loves problem solving.

"Whether we plan to expand or not, we'll need to keep an eye on the enemy. We can't really trust anyone other than your squad, so we'll need to reorganize."

"Okay. How do we do that, Red?"

"Hmm..." He taps his temple. Red always does that when he's thinking. "How about making new squads like the Coward Squad? Using the Coward Squad as a base?"

"Red, spell it out for me. You know I can't keep up with you."

"Okay. We'll take each member of the Coward Squad and put, say, ten men under them. They'll train those ten men the same way you've trained Grak and them. We'll train all together at first but slowly they should be able to do it separately. This way, we'll have about 100 disciplined goblins. Even if every single other gob ran away, 100 trained gobs is enough to win in a war."

I can't help but smile. I knew Red would be perfect for this role. He already has a great idea. He's just a natural at it.

...

After a few days, we've lost nearly 100 gobs. That's a lot but it's to be expected. I'm not your typically "strong" goblin, so I knew a number of gobs wouldn't be willing to follow me. The others, though, are good. We've started training and we're already seeing huge results. Each gob is worked to the bone every day but we make sure to give them a full belly, too. Other gobs, seeing this, wanted to join in. I was opposed to it at first but Red said it was okay. Told me to trust in the training. And it's working, too. It's not a whole lot but we can already see the gobs growing more disciplined.

"How long do we need to do this," I ask Red.

"Forever. If we want to maintain an efficient army."

"Ah," I don't really understand it. Whatever Red says, though. He's always right.

"What we need right now is unity. We need everyone to be disciplined and feel as though we're one. A single entity. I've got a few ideas I'd like to share with you. Firstly, I have some mantras..." Red trails off.

I'm just struck by the beauty of these gobs all training as one. Over a hundred gobs all doing the same thing. At my order. At Red's order. It's awe inspiring.

"Do you understand?"

"Mhm." I don't understand. "I'll get right on it." I won't get right on it.

Red sighs. "I'll explain it again. Listen this time." He smiles. He might act a little flustered but I know he's loving this. Loving the fresh air, loving the freedom, loving the problems. It's a nice day for the both of us.