Goblin Bound: The First of Many

Chapter 11: Resilient I

Faint voices echoed in the eerie darkness he soon found himself. He hardly remembered who he was or how he got here. All he could feel was a floating sensation, his ‘body’ seemed suspended in an ocean or simply floated in a vast empty space, there was hardly any importance in the distinction of either case.

Slowly but surely his clouded mind began to regain clarity, something he instantly regretted. Accompanying his awakening was mind-numbing pain wrecking nearly every part of his body he could now feel. His muscles burned and his bones creaked with the barest of movement, all sending constant jolts of pain coursing through his body making even breathing a chore.

His eyes sprung open from the pain, eager to find solace in something aside the darkness. Dark earthen walls revealed themselves to his eyes, deeply ominous in the dim lighting. His eyes blinked with confusion, contemplation and finally recollection.

He remembered who he was, where he was but still couldn’t remember nor understand how he got here - now or before. Groaning in far from mild pain, he attempted to turn his head to gleam more of the surroundings when a stern voice berated him in a harsh yet sympathetic tone.

“Don’t move you fool! It’s a miracle you’re alive as it is.”

Resisting the urge to turn his head, his eyes shifted in the direction of the voice. Rya shuffled closer, her face clouded with worry and her eyes faintly glistened with tears. He let out a small sigh of relief to himself, he didn’t think he would leave that cave nor see them again in one piece - him in one piece.

“I’m guessing you didn’t make it far huhn?” She said in a bland tone, sarcasm evident in her voice.

Kenny’s eye twitched but he couldn’t find the words to retort, not like he could anyway. He made it quite deep into several pathways before encountering the huge scary goblin, but that simply proved he wasn’t anywhere near the exit.

Rya let out a small sigh seeing him quiet,t her brows furrowing seeing him subtly trembling in pain. There was little they could do for him given their current situation and the goblins didn’t leave anything to assist either except a small slab of raw meat they occasional threw into the cage.

The treatment was a shocker to the captives, they were long used to feeding on the moss on the walls and the occasional disgusting mesh of intestines the goblins were very fond of tossing into their cage. Initially hesitant, and not knowing what kind of meat it was, they didn’t dare touch it but hesitation gave way to curiosity and after one of them boldly confirmed it wasn’t human meat the others had little reason not to feed on the meat despite it being raw.

Rya could see some of the girls looked visibly rosier than before, a tinge of colour returning to their face alongside a small touch of flesh. Knowing this was only possible due to the injured man before her, her gaze held a mix of emotions.

She initially thought him dead when they harshly tossed him in a few days back - by her rough count - unmoving and bloodied. His body, burning from poison and pain, was terrible to look at and if they hadn’t seen the faint rising and falling of his chest they truly would have thought him dead. But despite it all he persisted, his body refused to succumb and fought with aggressive tenacity.

Force feeding him moss and chewed meat was the routine till his fever abated and his body began healing, slowly but noticeably. Gazing at his pale face, she couldn’t help but blush slightly in recollection of her intimate actions and she truly hoped he was unconscious through it all.

“You…,” Her eyes narrowed as she remembered something, she didn’t bother before since it was painfully obvious he was eager to court death. “didn’t tell me…us your name.”

Kenny shifted his eyes, clouded in exhaustion and pain, and briefly replayed the past in his head. He truly didn’t tell them his name, he was too occupied digesting the horrible information before quickly switching to his terrible plan to escape.

Slightly shifting his body to a more comfortable position, he turned his eyes toward her. Watching her expectant gaze, he briefly pondered which name to give even though he could hardly remember any name aside his own. The conundrum of if this body was his or he was simply borrowing it didn’t really bother him till now and in retrospect he didn’t even think it mattered. He was the one suffering in pain at the moment.

Soothing his throat as best as he could. “You…can…call me…Kenny.” His throat ached from those few words. His body felt strangely light as soon as he uttered the words, as if some prior bonds shattered and set his soul and body free. His body shivered for a moment, his pain dulling to acceptable limits.

“Kenny huhn?” Rya repeated to herself, her eyes narrowed in thought. “An interesting name, can’t tell where it’s from though.”

“Ah well, neither can I it seems” He chuckled as best as his dry throat could let him.

Gritting his teeth amidst the pain, his arms shuddered in protest as he forced his upper body off the ground to rest against the wall. Relief hit him in multiple parts, one from his arms releasing his weight and his body relaxing after stiffening for who knows how long.

“How long was I out?” He asked after taking a deep breath.

“It’s hard to tell time in here but I’d say about 3-4 days.” Rya briefly gazed at the flickering flames outside the cell.

Kenny blinked hard, truly wondering just how he was still even alive. If the poison, several bleeding wounds and the hit from that heavy club didn’t do him in then simply passing out for days without any nutrition should have done the job but somehow he was still alive.

His eyes shifted to the lady before him, understanding he was alive in no small thanks to her. His hand softly felt his face, feeling the mark of the arrow already fading to the touch. His right shoulder still burned from having an arrow puncturing through it and a quick glance at his left palm- from what little he could see through his gloved hand - revealed new flesh covering the hole that should have been there .

“I don’t know what you did to agitate those goblins and why they left you alive but I’m glad you are…alive.” Rya’s words rung in his ears, his mind relaxing into the present.

He chuckled. “Just kill…took down two of them is all, no biggie.” His eyes dimmed as he recalled the brief yet harsh fight, the dead goblins and especially the blood painting he left on the walls. A shiver ran through his spine, not from the deaths but from the chilling realization he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

Several of the other girls seeing him awake crowded closer to him, the relief evident on their faces.The chill threatening to assault his weakened body was swiftly chased away as they inched closer, some checking on his palm and others inching a weird-looking green mass toward his face.

“Eat.” One of the girls said. Her eyes seemed like twinkling stars to him and a bright smile adorned her face, one he found hard to understand in this terrible space.

Shifting his eyes to the green mass she was holding, he couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose at the smell. “Uhh no thanks, I’m good.”

Rya chuckled seeing his poorly concealed disgust. “That moss is what’s kept you alive you know.”

“Moss?” Kenny raised an eyebrow.

Rya gestured toward the walls thriving with dark green moss. “The goblins hardly ever bother with our feeding so we’re forced to eat those. They taste awful but it’s better than starving to death.”

“Huhn huhn” Kenny eyed the dark green moss suspiciously. His face paled knowing they’d no doubt somehow fed him the vile stuff when he was unconscious, that explained something at least.

“The moss helped with the poison and we’re not sure if its still in your system so you should eat up.” Rya said evenly.

His eye twitched but unable to come up with a suitable counter logic, he resigned himself to being force-fed the awful tasting moss. His face scrunched from the terrible bland taste, one he had to quickly adjust seeing the earnest face of the girl in front of him.

Another girl inched closer, moving her cupped hands toward his mouth. “Drink”

His eyes could make out a clear liquid leaking between her palms. “Water?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“There’s a small puddle where water leaks from between the cracks.” Rya said.

Kenny nodded in understanding, graciously accepting the few drops left in the girl’s palms. An everchanging line soon formed, some feeding him the dastardly moss and others shuffling back and forth with cupped palms.

Still very much sore, he could do little but sit there and take all they fed him. The dim looks in some of their eyes sent aches of pain in his chest, but the bright gleam in others thoroughly wrecked him. They had no idea what awaited them in the next moment - though there was little doubt what that would be - but his presence was a welcome anomaly to the dark chilly cell.

He counted about eleven girls in the gloomy cell, some looking older than others but generally all looked young. He could only imagine how many girls have met their end here, but the huge mound of bones sitting eerily in the corner didn’t make him underestimate that number.

His eyes dimmed thinking how easy it was to join that mound. If anything it seemed the easiest thing to do but ironically also the most painful, to forever lay as a deterrent to others. He would… should have been part of that mound by now, why he wasn’t eluded even the others and he could hardly come up with anything convincing either.

‘I’m alive, for now, and that’s all that matters.’ He felt visibly relieved. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid. He’d never felt fear on par with meeting that huge goblin, it felt like standing before a speeding truck, stuck with the grim understanding of how futile it would be to stop it.

Time passed slowly in silence, the girls unwilling to disturb him seeing his tired expression despite the multitude of questions hanging on the tip of their tongues. His vision grew indistinct before eventually succumbing to darkness. It seemed he only closed his eyes for a mere moment before the familiar yells and grunts of goblins echoed from beyond the cell.

His muscles tensed and an air of terror was suddenly palpable in the sir, so strong he could taste it. His hand moved to his side, expecting to find his sword. It was gone. He made to stand but the slightest shift of his hip knocked his head hard with pain.

The girls froze unconsciously, the terror of the voices long instinctive in their very bones. They shuffled closer, forming a loose circle, consciously or unconsciously crowding around him.

Complex emotions rose in his heart at their actions, once again they were protecting him in their own way- like a mother hen trying to protect her chicks from a swarm of hawks. His eyes turned to the gate just in time to catch the familiar ugly figures of the goblins.

A number of goblins - He lost count at about a dozen - crowded outside the cell, yelling and baring their dirty yellow teeth. Wielding various crudely carved weapons, a number of them stormed into the cave with palpable bloodlust.

They growled and snarled, pushing past the irregular blockade of human bodies - obviously they weren’t there for the girls this time. One of the goblins growled in its tongue, signaling the others outside the cell.

“He here. He here.”

The mob outside the cell exploded, their screeches deafening. The small group roughly shoved aside the girls and dragged Kenny out of their protective circle. Kenny barely had time to gasp from the numbing pain when the first blow hit - the bone of his cheek shuddering from the impact - nor did he have time to register that pain when the second hit and then a third and then the entire mob descended upon him in wrathful fury.