training facility
1391 Words
Jaren wandered in the darkness to what he thought was a light in the distance. A somber light that didn't want to be seen, so it hopped away like a bunny that was seen by a hunter.
Out of embarrassment, annoyance or fear, the reason why it was running was unknown. Jaren though, relentless in pursuit was not planning to leave his curiosity go unquenched or let himself look stupid. He saw it just a few minutes earlier when Gooba was telling him something, of course he pointed out the strange light.
But when Gooba turned around to look it wasn't there anymore, and he simply called Jaren tired. The Fierce leader was not going to let that stand, and started chasing the light to find out what it was. It couldn't have been god. He didn't emit light when they would talk, it was more of a jolly kind of emotion that flowed from him.
So what was it then? Did it want him to to look insane? what did this world try to do just now. When the light led Jaren to a certain spot in the forest, it stopped running.
Jaren treaded forward slowly, and when he was close enough he reached out his hand to grab whatever it was. Steadily enough he came closer to it, his hand getting enveloped in the light. It washed over his shoulder then came on his face, highlighting his focused eyes. Everytime he thought that he was going to grasp something solid it would seem that he had to go deeper and deeper. Like digging into air.
'Boss!' The fierce leader snapped out of his search for the truth to see Gooba in the in the distance. 'Look Gooba, don't you see the light. Now don't you ever call me crazy again.'
'I didn't call you crazy and don't see a light.' Gooba answered. Surprised to hear that Jaren looked back to see the light gone without a trace, left to be nothing more than a memory. 'We need to go back to the group boss, if master Sou notices we are not with them, we will be in trouble... especially you.' Gooba said. Disappointed, Jaren Joined him and both of them went back.
Jaren was surprised to hear that he had been chasing the light for thirty minutes.
------------------
It had been 4 weeks since Jaren entered the strange town, since then it had become oddly familiar. Every member of his clan including him settled quickly. It was confusing at first; The caned man just dropped them of at a building, then left.
They would try to follow him further if they could, but it was as if they were frozen on the spot. Later another goblin -Sou- picked them up, and suddenly they could move again. Sou assigned them all a place where they could sleep.
Every morning they were woken and then directly sent to the cafeteria were they would be fed. It was there that Jaren realized that they were not the only young goblins there. When he was eating he saw goblins around his age or older snacking in the same room.
After they were all fed Jaren and his clan were forced out of the building outside again. All day long they would just wander the streets, aimlessly figuring out what to do. Eventually out off pure boredom they would start communicating with whomever the saw. This way they learned the new language fairly fast.
When that was noticed by Sou their daily schedule completely changed to one that emphasized training, discipline and teambuilding. Their days were far from boring now, and revolutionized the way they saw things.
Jaren was no longer seen as the leader of his group because of the elders that now had control over their day to day life. Though he tried to fight for his place, and challenged his new masters for their position. He failed miserably and got beaten by his superiors .
Jaren was still respected by his group, as he was still the fastest, smartest and strongest of them. But he was more like the populair kid in school and not the principal
-----------------
Shortly after Jaren and Gooba arrived back to the group, Knots came running to them and said 'Boss, master Sou saw that you guys strayed from the group and calls you to him. He has that uncanny face that he always puts on so he isn't that mad, or you won't notice he is.'
Gooba and Jaren didn't say anything to knots, they knew they had to go fast. Master Sou didn't like waiting. He was just further ahead but Gooba was anxious and felt like he had to sprint his way to the master. Jaren calmed him, and said that even though the master didn't like waiting, they shouldn't stumble to him. It made them look weak.
The master stood at the edge of a cliff looking over the forest. He had a resolute posture; Legs far apart, his arms were crossed, and his breathing was slow and steady. As if he sensed the two goblins coming he called out 'Jaren, Gooba,' The man looked over his shoulder at the two 'just a few minutes ago I saw you goobers separate from the group, tell me why.'
Gooba was twirling his fingers while looking down. He tried to form a few sentences to explain the situation but whatever he said came out as stutters. Jaren knew Gooba wouldn't rat him out, that's why he was stumbling so hard. He tried coming up with a lie even though he was bad at that.
'It was me master,' Jaren spoke up, he put both his hands behind his back and stepped up 'I was feeling a bit sleepy then hallucinated that I saw a light. Gooba ended up following me, to bring me back.'
The master asked 'Is that true Gooba?' the scrawny goblin hesitated to speak, but confirmed it when he saw Jaren give him permission to talk with a fast nod in his direction.
'Okay, you can leave then Gooba.' The scrawny goblin didn't want to leave, letting his boss be alone with the master felt like a betrayal.
But with another nod from Jaren and with a 'Go on, leave.' from Sou, he departed. When he was sure Gooba left Sou fully turned to Jaren. The master was a young goblin, Jaren compared him to a human in his mid twenties with a old tired soul; flowing hair that came to his ears, baggy dark circled eyes and a empty smile that never seemed to disappear.
The master said, 'Jaren, you can't just separate from the group like that, these aren't the baby woods anymore.' It was a strange concept at first, but it seemed that the woods Jaren spent his first three months in was nothing more than a place they put baby Goblins in to get basic survival skills.
'We all expect a lot from especially you, so don't do anything reckless like this anymore.' Sou looked his student up and down and added 'That includes hiding knives from me.' Jaren his eyes opened out of surprise and said 'What knife are you talking about?'
'The one behind your back Jaren. You aren't fooling anyone,' the master chuckled 'So stop your rude attempts at taking our spot when it's clearly not your time yet.' that's when the master returned to the cliff and watched over the scenery. Jaren looked at hands and saw a silver dagger resting in his right. Shimmering in the moonlight and heavy for such a small thing. He never even felt it there, so he asked himself how it got there. He gave up on the idea of taking back his group for now, favoring the idea to learn from his elders. So why was there a dagger in his hand.
'You aren't not going to get punished. first give me that dagger, second 200 extra push ups everyday for a week.' Jaren jumped a bit when he spoke so suddenly but answered fairly normal 'Y-yes master' 'And I still need to show y'all something, so rally the group. We'll leave soon.' 'Yes master.'
Soon Jaren was back with the group. Gooba came to him and kept apologizing, Pipin was just curious to what happened
- Writer
