Hiding from might

My heart started beating faster and my breath became very intense, hard, and fast breaths. Looking at the entrance to the cave with scared eyes and heart beating like that of a rabbit. I then looked at the others around me in the unsettling light of the burning fire. Our shadows on the walls and we in an almost still position, only very slow moves.

"Do you think someone's there?" A voice from the outside asked someone. A low manly voice from behind the wooden wall that we've set up before. What if they have weapons? What if there are more of them out here? Estel can't fight properly and I'm not an experienced fighter. We would surely lose if a fight was to break out.

"Should we go in?" Another voice from behind the wall, it makes a feeling of a void devouring the space between us and them. Something that may be on our side or against us, now it's like a wall between two powers protecting both of us. Them from us and us from them, we don't know how many of them and they don't know how many are we. It's a very strong thrill that made my whole body shiver and cover itself with goosebumps. The voice this time that answered from behind the wood was a shrieking voice, an annoying one.

"No! Idiot! What if there are people in there, you even see a fire still burning inside. Who would leave that place in a night as cold as this one. Well… If we won't go in we will die from freezing." The low voice answered what was right. We have a big advantage against them since we have the heat from the fire and they have nothing. The other thing that is by our side is their lack of knowledge if we are actually here, therefore we all stood motionless in place.

"But they would probably go outside to check who we are and force a fight." The shrieking voice answered.

"Not everyone is as dumb as you moron." The low voice came out from the void of the wooden entrance. He is right though, we aren't that dumb to just go outside and meet a random someone in this cold.

"Don't call me a moron! I'm not a moron… But if we stay here any longer we will die anyway." The annoying voice seems smarter than just a second ago.

"You are right… Let's go." The low manly voice said, I started hearing the steps hitting the hard rock of the cave. The shoes slowly started appearing on one side of the entrance, there were two entrances one on right and one on left since we couldn't cut wood to close them. It didn't change anything as I saw two pairs of feet leaving the curtain made of logs. The ragged shoes with something blue on it, probably from cold. Their naked legs also started revealing themselves as well as their swinging arms. A black hand, leg, skin. Big muscles with probably the owner also being very big himself. The other seems a lot smaller, his hands shallow and the legs seem as only bones with some skin. Green skin.

I didn't see a weapon in their hands and once they entered, they saw us. A weird moment of silence, us four relatively close to each other men looking at the two other men entering the cave. They looked at us, we at them. This moment that should be short went on for around 20 seconds of us just staring at each other with shock.

"Run!" The bigger black skinned guy looked at the entrance, or exit now. And screamed with his low voice.

"Wait! Don't run!" I shouted to them before they left the cave when I looked at them a little bit. They seem very… Neutral. As if they want to survive instead of fight their way to live. I hope they will listen to me and not run away.

"Hayden what are you doing!" Estel almost shouted at me angry, I very well understand the question since it's very risky.

"They will die otherwise!" I screamed concerned, I know that there is a chance… But we aren't going to sleep anyway. If we can save them we should, Flora surely would. They stopped and didn't run, they stood in the entrance. It's dumb but there is no other way of them surviving anyway so they may as well as just take the risk.

"Sit down." Estel followed what I wanted to achieve. Help. They didn't say a word and just obeyed, we all then sat in a circle around the fire. Silence in the cave surrounded the inside like a black mist of ashes after burning corpses. Those that were burnt down the mountain from falling…

"What are your names." I asked with no real feelings behind those words. I looked at the small guy. He doesn't seem like any other men of the races that have this kind of color. He doesn't look like either an orc or troll, he is a lot too small for that.

"My name is Bog and his name is Finn." The big dark skinned man answered my question, the small guy only shivered a little. Probably from fear.

"Is he an orc? He seems too small to be an orc though." Matthew said breaking the mist of silence. He was faster than me with asking the question which was a nice surprise.

"He is actually a goblin." The enormous man said while looking at the fire. "This isn't even his real name. I called him that and so it just stood like it."

"A goblin? A talking goblin? How… Where did you find him and why is he here with you?" Marcus almost jumped from excitement while looking at the shallow bodied Finn behind Bog's back.

"Long story..." The big man answered the question and then seemed like he fell into a trap of his own mind.

"Is it so weird for a goblin to talk?" I asked since I'm not so sure. The memory loss probably took that memory out of me. Then my eyes met Finn's, something slowly started appearing in my head.

"They are one of the wild species in the world. They are not much different from wolves because they mostly appear in packs but communicate more like…" The explanation has been cut off. I appeared somewhere else. Staring at Finn being behind the big man's back brought a memory of mine…

Always when my mother came to the house where I lived with Flora, every single time she visited I always tried to avoid her terrifying gaze. When she came I always hid behind Flora, doing everything to avoid talking to her or even looking her in the eyes. One time though…

When she came to us once as always I was hiding behind Flora. Right in the doorway when I was still six. Her maiden's skirt was completely hiding my eyes from my mother's.

"So… How is living in the house? Everything is clean?" My mother asked with her typical voice that drilled into one's soul, showing domination the conversation that has been held between her and anyone on the other side. Very scary voice, truly.

"Yes madam." Flora answered in her polite voice as always when talking to mother or father. No thrill in her voice, an emotionless one. Not showing the loss in battle of authority.

"Can I go in?" She already entered while asking, it must've been a question with no answer.

"It's your house madam." She bowed while showing a gesture with her hand, she still answered the question even if there was no need for doing it.

"Why do you have to be so blend Flora." She asked with sarcasm in her voice just saying it to annoy Flora probably. She said no word afterward while Flora took the lead and went together with my mother. A thing I had to follow of course. While walking through, my mother swiped her finger on every single drawer that was in sight, looking for any dust. What a witch.

We entered the trophy room with all the hunting trophies from a long time ago, my great grandfather's last memorial. She sat in the big red chair almost like a throne in the middle of it with all heads of animals on the walls, I sat in a chair and Flora stood right next to another in the room.

"So… How are things going for you, Flora?" She asked her with the dominating voice once again, she didn't allow Flora to sit down.

"It's going well, madam. I'm cleaning the house every day keeping everything in a good state." She said politely, I could only watch as they both spoke together.

"I see that you are keeping it pretty clean indeed. But what about all the stuff in the attic?" In the attic she said? I was never allowed to go there, Flora always had to keep a facade of a well trained maiden when mother was here. Otherwise? Mother would take me back to the main house… She really has saved my life from corruption… I miss her a lot. Her long blonde hair and the smile that resembled the sun, a yellow beautiful shine that brings life to flowers.