“Well, well, going somewhere?” the human man said to her, he took out his sword and began to advance on her.
Another scream in the forest stopped him short. It was followed by a strange sort of call, not quite a howl or a scream. Then the night was filled with the sound of breaking branches. A group of creatures of some sort was running towards the campsite, no longer making any effort to silence their movements. A moment later a dozen short green creatures with pointed ears and gnarled teeth burst out of the bushes. Goblins, at least two dozen of them.
They did not have any time to react before the goblins were upon them. The goblins reached the men first, giving Tara a moment to prepare herself. She sent a lightning bolt streaking through the entire group, including the sith and the human who had been holding her captive. The sith dropped her necklace and she dove for it. Then she scrambled to her feet, throwing off a couple of goblins who had jumped on her back. Grabbing her backpack she started running and didn’t look back until she tripped over something. She looked to see what she had tripped over, the third man who had been holding her captive, at least the bloody mass that was left of him. It looked like the goblins had hacked him into several pieces.
The other human and the sith were chasing after her. Or more precisely, they were running in the same direction as she to get away from the goblins. The goblins were close behind them and a moment later they began to overtake them, enveloping her captors in a swarm of green bodies. More goblins were heading towards her.
Tara activated her necklace and slid into the shadow realm. She ran back towards the camp, going from shadow to shadow until she reached the horses. Then she came out of the shadow realm and looked around. They were not far away and would most likely soon catch her scent. She unhitched the horses and jumped on the back of one of them, taking off down the road as fast as the animal would carry her. Behind her she could hear the goblins attempting to pursue and then an arrow pierced her shoulder, nearly knocking her off the horse. She looked back at the horde of goblins and sent another lightning bolt at them, a few fell but the rest kept following. Slowly they faded out of sight.
She continued riding, letting the horse set the pace, until the horse was too tired to go any further. Then she rested for the night, dozing fitfully and jolting awake at every sound.
At some point that night she dreamt that she was back in the wagon tied up and looking at the sith who had held her captive. His face was covered in gore, but it did not bother her in the dream. What did bother her was that his features seemed to be changing into those of someone else’s, someone she did not know but nonetheless found familiar. Then she noticed that the old lady she had seen in the forest was sitting beside him. The old woman waved at her then started laughing. Tara woke up feeling chilled.
“At least I have a horse now.” She said to herself the next morning as she prepared to continue her journey. Hopefully she was out of the goblin’s territory now and they would not pursue her any further.
Three days later she came across a small farm settlement that was under attack by bandits. She assisted in fighting the bandits off, killing a couple with fireballs. The inhabitants of the farm gratefully offered her room and board for the night and over supper she learned that the owner of the farm was also a merchant who traded goods in the underworld. He was away at the time, but was expected to return in a couple of weeks. So she remained at the farmstead, helping the man’s wife run things until he came back. A week after his return he set out for the underworld via a magical castle known as the Rising Keep. He told her that it was ruled by a sith prince and that it traveled back and forth to the underworld. To thank her for her aid he offered to take her there. |
