The Storm Breaks

Jonas yawned. He had expected the attack to have occurred already. He'd just started his watch, standing by the window on the second story of the building the entire town had taken refuge in, wondering if there was going to be an attack tonight. He wasn't really sure if he wanted there to be one or not.

If there wasn't, then that would mean his credibility among those who really weren't happy with these arrangements would push back with it. If there was an attack, then everyone would see how necessary this had been. Whether they survived the night in that case, depended more on how many goblins there were.

While Jonas was confident that they'd be able to fight the goblins easily, they still only had so much strength. If their Stamina gave out partway through the fight, then they could be in trouble, depending on how many goblins were still alive at that point.

While he had expected the goblins to have attacked by now, if they were going to attack, he couldn't say that there wasn't going to be an attack. After all, he had no idea how far his contacts had gone in search of the goblins. He also had no idea if the goblins planned to wait for more goblins, so as to have a greater force. There was just too many possibilities for him to consider. Especially since his experience with goblins was very limited.

Jonas glanced at the sky. He could see a bright gibbous moon giving some light to go with the starlight that could be seen. While Jonas might be tempted to think that this was hs world, but maybe a different time period, the constellations of the stars, as well as the craters visible on the moon said this wasn't the world he was from.

While he would sometimes imagine the face he could see in the moon from his world was a powerful being that protected his world from monsters that lived in space, when he was a kid, this moon didn't have a face. This moon gave the same silvery=white light, but the patterns on its surface looked more like that of a dog or a wolf to him.

Maybe he was wasting his time, but he couldn't help but feel drawn to it. Much like the moon on his world when he was a child. Almost like that's where he should be striving to get to, rather than doing the work that he'd been doing for who knew how long.

In reality, even though he wasn't that old, considering how long he potentially had left to live, he couldn't remember very well when he'd started working along the edges of the underworld. At times it felt like he'd been doing that his entire life, but he did have some memories of when he wasn't involved with that part of the world at all.

So lost in his thoughts, that he almost didn't catch a small sound that made him look back down on the village that his group had been staying at for the past couple weeks. He strained his eyes trying to see what might have caused the noise, but nothing stood out to him.

When he focused on the shadows, his vision would shift and he'd be able to see in them as if it was broad daylight, though it always took a moment. Useful, but not the best way to go about it, he was sure.

Yet, since he couldn't see anything in the areas lit by the moon and stars, he started looking at the shadowed areas, more to make sure he wasn't missing anything. He didn't want to fail at his job if he could help it. Especially since he wasn't sure what was going on between him and Elmo. Ever since Elmo kissed him, he hadn't been able to put his finger on what it was, especially since nothing else had happened so far. Jonas couldn't help but wonder if the ball was in his court of whatever in regards to that.

Jonas was about to let his gaze return to the sky, when he noticed something odd in one of the shadows. He couldn't be sure what it was, but something told him that he needed to move. Not that he was able to move very much before the reason became crystal clear to him.

An arrow had appeared in the wall right where his chest had been a moment before. Right where it would have pierced his heart, rather than giving his arm a nasty cut. Yet, he wasn't sure what he should do. Especially since he doubted the archer would buy him falling dead because of that hit.

However, he didn't want to raise an alarm, since he couldn't be sure if that would draw more goblins in faster or not. Especially since he didn't know where their forces were. Nor did he care to find himself cut off from any support from those in the basement.

So, he slowly and carefully moved to check on the other sentries. It certainly wouln't look good for him to go to the basement himself and leave the others up here to quite possibly die before they could be brought to awareness of the danger. The closest one to where he kept watch was clearly dead when he saw them.

And arrow right through his chest, the look of surprise on his young face made Jonas feel awful. The sentry looked like he was maybe 14. Too much of his life ahead of him to have died like this. In addition to that, it was clear he didn't even have a chance. Jonas only survived because of his abilities and some luck. Especially since he suspected that the sound he'd heard earlier had been this boy being hit by the arrow.

Regardless of how he felt about the young boy's death, he pushed on to check the others. Even though it was clear the goblins were trying to kill those keeping watch, he couldn't be sure that the goblins had gotten the others already. It was possible that he was merely the second they'd tried killing. Which meant that there was a chance he'd be able to save the others. That he might be able to prevent another tragedy similar to that of the 14 year-old boy who'd just been killed.

If nothing else, he knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't at least check. If they were still alive and the goblins attacked, chances were that they'd be killed while the rest of them were preoccupied with keeping the goblins out of the basement. Either from them trying to help in some way or from stray goblins searching for other ways to the basement.

Fortunately for one of the sentries ,a 15 year-old girl, Jonas pulled her out of the way just in time to save her life. Jonas was able to get he other sentry's attention, who was an 18 year-old young man, and started herding them back to the stairs so they could give the warning.

One complication arose from the 18 year-old when they neared the stairs that Jonas hadn't considered. "Wait, where's my brother? He was on watch with us," he said, alarm mixed with concern clear on his face.

Jonas felt the his stomach drop. He hadn't considered who might be affected by the 14 year-old's death, but it wasn't like he'd had the luxury of time to even think about that. Jonas merely shook his head in response. "I'm sorry, they got him first," he said quietly, not sure what else to say or if there was a better way of saying it.

The young man stared at Jonas in horror, freezing in place. Jonas merely sighed and slung one of the young man's arms over his own shoulders and started to move the young man along, as awkward as it was throught he narrow stairs.

The girl hadn't said anything, but the frightened look on her face told Jonas all he needed to know. She wasn't going to be a problem and was merely selected for that task. Probably because they didn't have as many people as they'd probably prefer having.

Jonas hadn't been sure that they'd be able to make it to the basement without trouble, and so was glad for that small favor as the reached the basement, startling awake the people who were right by the base of the stairs.

"It can't be time for the next watch, can it?" croaked one of the villagers, who turned over, clearly intending to go back to sleep.

"Wish it was for that," Jonas replied. Then he helped the young man sit on the ground, his back to the wall of the basement before calling out into the room, "Everyone wake up! The enemy is here! We've already had our first casualty. One of the sentries of the second watch was killed. I suspect the enemy will be here shortly. So, anyone who wishes to survive, you better get ready to complete what each of you was assigned before we went to bed."

Jonas doubted all of what he'd said was necessary, but felt like saying it anyway. If nothing else, it would stress the importance of this to those who hadn't taken it seriously. He also didn't mention the goblins, primarily because he'd sold it to the village leaders as 'bandits' because he doubted he'd get the same response as he had by mentioning bandits.

Jonas was about to try to find the rest of his group, when there was a loud banging sound from a door upstairs. Jonas knew he didn't have time to find them. He barely had time to draw his weapons and meet them partway up the stairs, so as to keep them from pushing them out away from the base of the stairs, where their numbers would allow them a greater advantage, if they had even half as many as they had when they'd rescued Heather and Sonya from them.

Jonas wished he could use some of his abilities he had from his system, but the ones he would want to use weren't combat related, and would allow the goblins a free route to the basement and the villagers who didn't know how to fight against a trained opponent, if they could fight back at all. Of all the villagers, Jonas was determined to save the children. They hadn't asked for this to happen and were among those whom he considered that couldn't fight back.