Goblin Bound: The First of Many

Chapter 3: Prisoners

His body brutally collided with a wall of…something, with so much force he nearly coughed up blood. This gave him a very painful description of the strength of the captain and the hardness of whatever he smashed into. He silently let out a breath of relief he didn’t carry out his crazy plan to crazily struggle.

He lay prone on the floor, letting out a groan from the pain erupting afresh from several parts of his body from the hit, and several hard objects falling on him from the mound. Another groan escaped him a moment later as a pungent smell tunneled heavily into this nose that seemed like it finally booted fully.

His body trembled, his stomach clenching terribly in discomfort from the sheer density of the smell, like the entire place was covered in it.

He took a few moments to calm himself, his pale face regaining a bit of colour. Visibility was low in the cell, the only source of light a small torch burning faintly in a corner. The whole cell was suffused with a faint orange colour from the flame, painting a barely visible scene of death.

Kenny blinked his eyes several times, slowly adjusting them to the barely lit space. He didn’t note how remarkably fast he achieved that, as the once dark area now had faint outlines and soon he could see everything somewhat clearly.

The first thing that came to his sight as he craned his neck was the pile of bones he crashed into earlier. Blood drained from his face, his eyes shrinking to pinpoints from the eerie sight. From first glance, he could somehow spot several skulls, femurs, ribs of mostly humanoid origin, with some still having bits of flesh dangling weakly off the dirty white bone.

Strength flooded his limbs from adrenaline as he scurried awkwardly from the mound of bones. Sweat dripped from the side of his face as he took in the sight of all those who most likely ended up as goblin food.

The bleak hope and growing horror associated with his current reality dawned heavily on him, this wasn’t some fantasy story he could observe from above as a reader…there was no shutting the book.

Fear spiked through his already heavy chest, a heavy chill spreading down his spine from the several voices that abruptly erupted from someplace in the cell.

“erfrgtmi?” (A human?)

“eferb ryhtdr yrdhrgni” (Not just that…it’s a man!)

“eferb ryhtdr yrd cewwr” (Not just that, he’s young.)

“yrd sfsvfg avr av argrgva grvawgrvav” (That’s odd, they don’t leave young adventurers alive)

His back chilled as he quickly whipped his head behind only to gaze right back into a pair of glowing green eyes in a dark corner of the cave.

“Ahh!” The eerie sight shocked him and he couldn’t help but let out a squeal as he shuffled backward in fright, so fast he collided once more with the mound of bones.

His heart nearly burst out of his chest as he observed the glowing pair of eyes increase as they slowly advanced toward him.

Several scantily clad and dishevelled ladies appeared before him as his eyes adjusted even more to the space. With this adjustment he noticed the cell was actually larger than he previously saw, hence why he failed to spot these ladies sooner…and in the first place he didn’t spare the place a glance as he was transfixed by the mound of bones.

On closer inspection, he noticed they were all human girls in probably their early twenties. They surprisingly all had blonde hair and fair skin that would have been quite the sight and texture if they weren’t so disheveled and dirty.

The group of 7-8 girls advanced slowly toward him, curiousity twinkling in their eyes…alongside a more primal…hunger.

The one at the forefront -the only one with green coloured eyes- dressed in a tattered brown leather trouser and a flimsy black top, closed in quicker and more boldly than the rest. Her face stared at him with a deep expression.

“hwfb…hwfb ade you still alive?” (How…how are you still alive?) She asked rather gingerly, a soft yet pitiful tone in her voice.

“Huhn?” He answered subconsciously. She spoke in a weird language he couldn’t understand at first but, like some auto translation function suddenly activated, it soon switched to a common earth language.

His brain took in her words for a couple moments. Was she wishing for his death? Hoping he’d be dead by now…but why?

His body subconsciously became aware of the mound of bones behind him, his eyes glancing past a bone nearby and his head couldn’t help but have several disturbing thoughts.

A trickle of sweat drew a line on the side of his face as it slowly dripped down. He waited silently for her to either say something else or repeat her question.

“The…the goblins…” She spoke hesitantly, seemingly trying to choose her words carefully. “they usually coat their knives in poison and I can see you’ve been stabbed.” her eyes turned to the wet patch of blood on his right side.

He turned to gaze at it, knowing now why his fingers felt wet and sticky earlier. The area felt slightly weird as he somehow felt the flesh there itching terribly, the wound still somewhat fresh. Seems whatever poison the goblins smeared their knives with made the wound terribly itchy. He seriously wondered how he even got stabbed and even more how the heck did he get here in the first place.

“I…I don’t know” He answered slowly, his eyes turning to face hers before glancing at the girls a little pace behind who were staring at him with intense…pity? passion?…he couldn’t quite place it.

“I see…” She nodded slowly, seemingly not expecting him to have an answer. She also had no problem understanding him, despite him speaking a common earth language…at least he thought he was.

“You’ll probably not last much longer, it’s only a matter of time now” She sighed.

His lips twitched at her ominous words but he also couldn’t help wondering why he wasn’t feeling the effect of the poison aside the terrible itching.

The thought briefly struck him that he shouldn’t be bleeding so little from such a heavy wound in the first place but it quickly disappeared as his brain strangely considered it normal.

Maybe the poison was subtle and would soon surface fully in time.

Or maybe he was already dead…

He shook his head of the ominous thoughts, he was breathing and that was enough for now. He was about to ask some questions but the girl’s next action caused his eyes to widen.

“Could you…could you please sleep with me…?” She asked shyly, lifting up her tattered top. “…before…before you die?”

His heart began to beat faster for a reason other than fear as he gazed frozen at the girl. She was in every way beautiful and alluring. The dirt, grime and pale complexion only doing little to hide her beauty.

He glanced at the other ladies of equal and near-equal levels of beauty who still looked at him with an intense gaze… a gaze he was beginning to understand.

It wasn’t passion…

It wasn’t primal lust…

It was…pity?

Pity bordering on relief. Like having one final sumptuous meal before death. They’ve probably been here for a long time and already resigned themselves to death.

He could understand why, the mound of bones alone did a heavy blow to his will and remembering the strength of the captain only crushed it further.

But that didn’t explain it fully…fear of death shouldn’t be enough to…cause such a scene. He should know…being in nearly the same situation…and being a damn virgin.

“W…why?” he asked with a solemn and confused expression on his face.

She bit her lip in frustration…and…disgust?

“Because…” She stammered, her body visibly shaking. She took a deep breath to steady herself and gazed at him with a resolute expression. “Because I don’t want my first time to be with a damn goblin”

“What?!”